I want them to do it because it shows an understanding of the world around them and the needs of guests. But I guess that only matters to some of it impacts them directly.
Adding EV Chargers
- Thread starter Rothbury
- Start date
I believe providing EV charging to guests is about tapping into another market so to speak. There is this market who drives EV's and they are required to plan their drives at the most cost and time effective option. As many EV owners have stated here - planning is required right now as EV's are still early in development. The park providing free EV charging will make the planning much easier and will entice EV owners to spend their time and money in the park because the EV owner now does not need to worry about finding another charging station nearby. The 2,4,6, X hours spent charging is with the guest in the park hopefully spending cash on food/ bev/ & merch.
As someone who drives a Chevy Volt, The proliferation of charging stations is wonderful to see. I’ve been expecting Busch to do it for years now.
It's potentially much better than that for the park, really.
A solar-assisted, grid-tied EV charging infrastructure, which offsets its own costs over time simply by operating year round, is like the holy grail of coupons. It is clearly attractive to a well-defined and quickly-growing group of fairly well-off, targetable, vehicle-owning consumers. And, operated over time, it quite amazingly costs the park something like... well, probably nothing, net, when a customer "redeems the coupon!"
What is the financial benefit to the park when it lands an incremental customer via that system? That customer's parking, admission, upsell, and concessions spend doesn't have to offset anything in terms of incremental cost-to-acquire. That cost is already covered by the system itself over time. The financial benefits to the park are then basically the same as if another gas-car guest magically appeared out of thin air at the parking lot toll booth, money in hand, ready to spend. That's fantastic.
Does the park want better guest attendance that requires little to no net incremental spend over time? If you were running the park, would you? I would.
Granted, patience is required, so it is not for everyone. The breakeven point against initial expenditures probably would require more than 3-5 years to reach, which can make decision makers antsy. Patience is not the business world's greatest collective strength. That doesn't make it a bad financial decision, though. Far from it.
I'll continue to appeal to my prior thoughts about the limited scalability of this approach: it can't grow forever in tandem with EV adoption. But it can do so for several years. Especially given that right now at BGW it is starting at zero. And beyond some future point, it possibly won't have to scale anymore anyway.
This is such a horrible take. There are so many parts of life where everyone pays the same but utilizes something different out of the payment. I don't own an EV and likely won't for quite a while but I think they absolutely should be adding free charging out of their own business interests and it doesn't bug me a single bit.
First, I think the answer is likely yes..... but secondly, and more importantly, the question isn't how many people are doing it but how many people it would bring in. I agree that BGW needs to improve the guest experience in a lot of ways but this never should be an either/or type of scenario.....
With BGW it's not just about the immediate area..... as I had mentioned before, BGW pulls people from areas that are highly populated with EVs.
You continue to ignore what's being told the same way you did when a very similar conversation came up in the politics thread. As was brought up in this thread as well, the EV chargers are incentives just like the Fun Cards are. I don't understand your reasoning for being so actively against EVs in general but whether you pay attention or not there are A LOT of EVs on the road today. Find a friend with a Tesla and go on a trip and see how busy the charging stations actually get..... This isn't just a small subset of people.
Believe me I do look for EVs and the past few weeks i’ve been doing a lot of study on them and how to deal with EV emergencies. However in my local area…southeastern Va I just don’t see that many, probably about one a day. Every time I go past the chargers at either Patrick Henery mall or Walmart on Jefferson there is usually only a couple cars at each.
As far as friends, there is no one I know that has one. My circle pretty much all drives trucks and SUVs. It’s out of necessity, we haul stuff, tow trailers and use them to go out on the beach. EVs right now don’t handle that kinda stuff well. In one of my jobs I rely on very large heavy diesel engines to get the job done. We did buy a fleet of hybrid diesel F550s with a large Lithium battery pack that was designed to run the entire vehicle, equipment and lights while idling to save fuel. They have turned out to be a disaster and the next batch they are not buying the hybrid battery system. I don’t disagree that EVs have a place, but to me that place is local commutes, door to door deliveries that the range in a day meets the need of the service, but long distances and heavy hauling it just isn’t there.
Right now the government is giving out huge incentives to people who buy EVs, well at least union made EVs but that’s a story for the politics thread. I’m sure manufacturers are getting some incentives as well to push them. I wonder if BGW could apply for some of the Build Back Bwtter Infrastructure Grants to help offset the cost on installing them.
I saw mention earlier if the EV charging at the rest stop on I64? I was up there a few weeks ago at the west bound stop and the EV station was gone….unless they moved it I couldn’t find it and the spot where it used to be the concrete pad and pipes are still there but the rest is gone.
How can you determine the percentage of people with EVs in the region based on a single trip to one mall?
Regardless, I think destinations should be investing based on the likely future demand, not yesterday’s numbers.
Please don’t speak for all non-EV owners. You have no way of knowing what the majority of people think about anything.
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Your right, I have no idea. What I do know is in a few years all this EV and green bullshit will go away when the next administration wants something diffrent. Enjoy it while you can……
Yeah, EVs are just gonna vanish. Sounds plausible.
Six Major Automakers Agree to End Gas Car Sales Globally by 2040
Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, and others, along with 30 nations, signed a pledge to eliminate sales of new gas and diesel-powered cars by 2035 in “leading markets.”
www.caranddriver.com
EVs are our future. Them's the facts.
So, you think the move to EVs is being driven by politicians? Seriously?
My understanding is that private citizens are making decisions based on the costs of fueling and maintaining their cars. There are some who are interested in larger environmental and resource issues, but straight cost-benefit, personal finance concerns are also huge motivators.
It seems as if you are angry that other people are investing in renewables and electric cars. I honestly can’t fathom why you care what other people do with their money. It also appears that you assume that your preferences represent both the views of the majority of people today and in the future.
This is so perplexing to me..... You argue against EVs because of long haul driving but then your entire basis for a lack of EVs is only based on an immediate area. I live in the WV panhandle and frequently see EVs but, even more so, I work in Northern VA and I often see over a dozen EVs just on my drive to work. I've also even stated the contingency that it's not like this in all areas but you seem to believe that your immediate area is representative of the rest of America yet you're constantly talking about how you drive all over the place. Even with that, when I drive to visit family through the middle of nowhere PA on the interstates I frequently see a few EVs and about half of those have non-PA license plates -- nowhere near as many as I see in the NoVA area but still present.
As for incentives..... here in WV I have to pay hundreds of dollars extra to register my hybrid that gets close to the same MPG as many compact ICE vehicles -- if you have a vehicle that plugs in then it's at least double that every year and yet people here still buy EVs. I'm not aware of any positive incentives available to me if I wanted to buy an EV but the prospect of being ridiculously cheaper to operate, never having to the majority of routine maintenance that ICE vehicles require such as oil changes, etc, not to mention the performance increases of no transmission sure make it a tempting purchase. Maybe there are incentives that I'm not aware of but I thought most of those ended many years ago.
Also, this whole EV emergency thing..... I can't believe you are still so hung up on that outside chance that you run your battery dead. You're looking at a well less than 1% event out of all the operating hours of EVs everywhere and you still keep focusing on that.
I see we’re back to “the rest of the world looks as I see it out my window” argument for not liking something. Great.
There’s still a ton of tax incentives. My girlfriends dad is buying a Nissan Airya, list price $53,000; but after incentives it’s more like $39,000. I just talked with Subaru about the Solterra, and the one I liked is $49,000; but with incentives and the limited amount on my trade I would be only financing $34,000.
There are tons of government incentives right now, and the best incentives are for vehicles produced by union autoworkers. That’s Toyota and Teslas big gripe right now.
It’s been all over the news but for those in the back row……..
www.pbs.org
Biden bill includes boost for union-made electric vehicles
President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are looking to give U.S. automakers with union employees the inside track when it comes to winning the burgeoning electric vehicle market.
www.pbs.org
They lost more in incentives due to the 200,000 rule than the union rule.
Also sounds like Toyota workers should unionize as they are basically praying on people that don’t know they can make more or should have better working conditions.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSN3043024820070730
Also Tesla has been fined multiple times for violating labor laws and Musk himself for making anti-union comments. Not to mention the Germany gigafactory lawsuits over environmental impacts due to deforestation and water usage.
Also sounds like Toyota workers should unionize as they are basically praying on people that don’t know they can make more or should have better working conditions.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSN3043024820070730
Also Tesla has been fined multiple times for violating labor laws and Musk himself for making anti-union comments. Not to mention the Germany gigafactory lawsuits over environmental impacts due to deforestation and water usage.
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But back to the main point of none of these are reasons for BGW to not have EV chargers. As the popularity and use of EVs grow it’s going to become something you’ll need to have rather than something that’s nice to supply. The lack of access to chargers outside of Tesla while on the road is what’s held me back (until now, made a deposit on a Solterra yesterday) from buying. As someone who doesn’t live local anymore, BGW trips are likely not going to happen without it. However trips to Hershey are on the table because it will be within range and they have chargers.
Probably because you got your facts wrong.
For those under a rock, here’s an article about the actual law right now:
Electric Vehicle Tax Credits: What You Need to Know