This struck me as an interesting sci-fi writing exercise. Gas stations are everywhere; but they'll likely change considerably going forward.
Imagine visiting a gas station in 2040:
• will it sell gas?
• what convenience items will it sell?
• who, if anyone, will staff it?
• what payment methods will it accept?
• what signage and decor will it use?
• will it offer new services?
Mostly sells food and soft drinks, so hot dogs, fresh sandwiches, baked goods, with much more seating area so you can sit and eat while your car charges.
Has almost no car-related stuff, just one or two small sections of blinker fluid, wunder-baum and such.
And looking at the current trend, there will be far fewer of them, mainly located at strategic positions. The small, local gas stations will go away.
I remember I was impressed by this. The only country I drink gas-station-coffee is Finland (because where else can you find coffee in the middle of nowhere?). So right after I read that article, and the first time I saw a BP gas station I got a coffee. It was 'cheap' and I assume EUR per mg of caffeine was 'ok', but the quality/flavor.. omfg. Also, volcanic hot, so thanks but no thanks.
[0]: https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/433444/bp-doesnt-just...
With the hot-dogs, fries, pizzas, snacks, milk, cereal, alcohol (in some countries), they remind me of "The Profit" with Marcus Lemonis, where he is trying to use each square-inch from a retail store to sell stuff.
- now having larger buildings to incorporate more convenience products (mostly foodstuffs) for sale - more pumps
Today, every gas station is self-serve, and often you can pay by card at the pump.
50 years ago, plenty of gas stations still had attendants. One guy would fill the tank (possibly with 'leaded'), another might give your windshield a quick wipe. You could ask for them to check your oil, too.
Not too much has changed since the '80s though.
Dead Comment
With cars lasting around 15 years, we can expect many gas stations to have closed by 2040.
Perhaps it can work well for certain commercial niches, time will tell.
Deleted Comment
most people aren't driving 200+ miles a day, which means 90% of charging will be at home.
Driving longer that 200 miles means you probably want a decent break. So I would imagine that most "local" places will disappear / pivot into shops with EV charging also.
Motorway services will also change I think. Fast food isnt as much of an appeal when you're stuck there for an hour or so anyway. So I could see a rise in retrain complexes with charging abilities.
possibly changes in behaviour will also affect things. If im traveling 4-6hrs in a day, id be ok with stopping of for an hour at a shopping centre where I could charge and also do some shopping, maybe let the kids play in a softplay or whatever
The first clever folks to stick a bull ring within 5 minutes drive of the M6 will 200+ charging points will do VERY well I think.
As you say, they'll all but cease to exist in urban areas, with the process mostly complete by the end of the 2030s. I'm not sure that dedicated EV charging stations will be all that common in cities, though. Why not use existing car parks for that?
Some probably will end up being used as surface car parks where there's demand for it, but urban land values are such that I suspect most will be knocked down and replaced with apartments or larger retail units. A few may retain the forecourt structures as a form of kitsch (think of the florists beside Regents Park in London, or the Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds).
There'll probably be a growing niche for domestic fuel delivery services. You might also see a minor resurgence of the very small neighbourhood filling stations that mostly died out in the 1970s/80s - the sort of place that does MOT checks or tyre changes today. Some might end up installing a pump or two, to cater for vintage car enthusiasts.
Many cities will ban vintage cars from entering.
This seems like an easy way for them to draw in customers.
Meadowhall in Sheffield is similarly close to the motorway, and has 36 chargers.
Chargers will likely rise up around a different type of venue that won’t be seen as a gas station. More cafes, places suitable to spend 15+ minutes. Places with seating.
Increasingly gas stations will just be seen as a dated concept that isn’t living up to the world of 2040. Otherwise they’ll be almost exactly the same as today.
Dead Comment
Or instead of trucks you could imagine that the left lane on highways could be replaced by some kind of train on rails that your car could dock to. In that train you’d have the same crap you have in current gas stations: mostly toilets and food stuff.
Cars docking to stuff is something that really clicks with me, but you could really go one step further away. You could split cars between the part that runs and the part that carries passengers. The part that carries people could be some kind of capsule akin to a boat container that could be loaded onto something else. When on the highway, this cabin could be put on some giant train that would carry hundreds of these capsules and when you need to get off the highway, your capsule would be loaded on some independent single-capsule vehicle, that would drive you where you need to go.
It’s probably all terrible ideas because that would make everything a lot less resilient to problems in terms of operation, but you said sci fi :-)
Oh and yeah 15 years is way too short to see that kind of changes.
My locals all:
Sell petrol
Sell snacks, meals and necessities (small convenience stores)
Sell firewood
Sell ice
Provide gas bottle swaps.
Sell large items that are convenient for ute tray transport (Slabs of drink and other items)
Provide free water and air, basic car wash facilities.
15 years from now I expect all of the above (It will take 20 years to get rid of petrol cars when the last one is sold)
Plus more common ev charging. Maybe battery swaps.
While it's true they still do these things, or try to, in my experience nobody actually uses them because of understaffing and underpaying of employees to the point of them not caring.
Who wants a brown hot dog or dried out taquito that's been on a roller for who knows how many days? Who wants soda from moldy taps? Who wants to stand in line to change out propane, to be told there's only one person working, go out and wait til the line is gone? Air is still free, but you have to go in and ask for it to be turned on.
At least that's my experience, maybe each locale is different. I literally have never seen a person buy prepared food or exchange propane at a typical gas station(wawa/buckees excluded) in my adult life.
They are open 24/7 with just enough food at only triple supermarket prices.
Nearest 4 to me always have better than 50% empty gas bottles, and the second it gets cold they sell out of firewood.
2/3 of their air hoses have been vandalised however, which just leaves a line up at the third.
It seems to be this. Many such stores near me offer a lot of prepared food (many thousands of calories at once on the heated display surface) and they’re not at loss-leader prices, so I have to assume it’s profitable.
In the UK you have to pay for water and air pretty much everywhere now.
Between cities they will be as now a rest stop mainly with fuel. Maybe more charging where you park.
Whether we staff or not depends on if we adopt Japanese culture. In Tokyo they have unattended fast food shops, and somewhat novelty robot servers at some restaurants.
I predict 50% chance of that happening. It may be driven to buy robots and automation becoming cheaper than labour plus mass surveillance making it less appetizing to steal.
They will be virtually identical, except that there will be far more ads. Perhaps stations in super urban areas will integrate AI into the pump, using your name and level 3 data to market to you hyper-specifically.
Also Arizona teas will no longer say 99¢ on the can.
(Probably not a good idea, there are camera's everywhere.)