Starbucks Partners With Mercedes-Benz to Install 100 West Coast EV Charging Stations

An electric vehicle charging station in Irvine, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Starbucks announced this week that it has partnered with Mercedes-Benz to install electric vehicle charging stations at more than 100 locations in the West Coast corridor along Interstate 5.

The charging stations will be built along Interstate 5, which stretches from Washington State to California, spanning 1,400 miles, according to a press release from Starbucks. The announcement didn’t say when installations would begin.

The company said its partnership with Mercedes is a “key” part of fulfilling their environmental promise to “give more to the planet than we take.” They also indicated that the charging stations will be placed in “core urban areas and charging deserts” during the first phase of the program.

“Partnering with Mercedes is the next step in expanding our EV charging network so our customers can refuel sustainably while they enjoy Starbucks,” said Starbucks sustainability officer Michael Kobori in the statement.

According to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there could be as many as 33 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, with 28 million charging ports needed to support them.

About 2 million of these estimated future charging stations will be located at multifamily homes, stores, restaurants, hotels, workplaces, and hotels, the report said.

In California, expanding the electric vehicle charging network is necessary, given Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2020 executive order requiring the state to eliminate sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

The measures are coinciding with a decline in annual sales growth of EVs in the United States. According to data from Kelley Blue Book analyzed by Cox Automotive, EV sales declined during the first quarter of 2024, representing the first “quarter over quarter downturn since [the second quarter of] 2020,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of Insights at Cox Automotive.

According to the California Air Resources Board, electric vehicle batteries have a range of around 200 miles and different kinds of charging stations can refill a battery at different speeds. DC Fast Chargers, for example, can recharge a car battery in about 30 minutes, according to the board.

Starbucks will install the Alpitronic Hypercharger 400 at its locations on the West Coast, the company said in the press release. The Hypercharger 400 is the latest EV charging model from the tech developer, which calls it “the world’s most efficient 400 kW charger.”

“The collaboration between two leading brands like Mercedes-Benz and Starbucks will uplift the charging experience for all EV drivers,” Andrew Cornelia, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging, said in a statement.

The Starbucks announcement said one of the goals of the collaboration with Mercedes was to “integrate” the experience of purchasing coffee with the task of charging electric vehicles of “all EV brands.”