Taco Bell wants to fill up more than just your stomach

Earlier this week, the first fast-charging EV station at a Taco Bell opened for business outside a restaurant in south San Francisco.

🌮🚘🔌 A deeper dive… The move is part of a partnership between Diversified Restaurant Group and startup ChargeNet Stations to ‘electrify’ 120 Taco Bell locations across the state over the next year.

• On average, ChargeNet’s DC fast-charging stations provide 46 miles of range after 10 minutes, or 100 miles after 20 minutes. The latter is priced at ~$20, the company said. (Quick math: $1 =~5 miles =~1 minute.)
• ChargeNet CEO Tosh Dutt said he's carving a niche for his startup by placing stations at fast-food restaurants, while larger and more established rivals – such as ChargePoint or EVgo – typically put their stations at popular retail sites, like malls or shopping centers.

🇺🇸 Zoom out: Of the 47,666 public EV stations in the US, only ~6,500 are DC fast chargers, with the rest being conventional AC chargers, per the Department of Energy.