Where Did Gas Stations Come From?
Doing research on the development of electric-vehicle charging infrastructure in cities around the world prompted a question: how did the first gasoline-filling stations become about?
Once upon a time, there were no filling stations and no gas-powered vehicles. That was in the late 1800s--a situation much like that for electric vehicles just a few years ago. Now there are 100s of thousands of gas stations, more than 100,000 of them in the US alone.
The honor of hosting the first filling station--if it's an honor--belongs to Wiesloch, Germany, where in 1888 Bertha Benz refilled the car her engineer husband, Karl, had built. She bought ligroin, a petroleum-based solvent, from a local pharmacy to use as fuel. Later, pharmacies started to sell gas as a side business.
In the US, before there were any filling stations, drivers got fuel from general stores, hardware stories, and blacksmith shops, using cans, buckets, and drums and funnels. The first drive-in filling station opened in Pittsburgh in 1913, selling a gallon of gas for 27 cents. Around this time, pumps and meters were developed for the growing market. Oil companies started to open filling stations and branded chains/franchises appeared.
In other words, what began as improvisation and resourcefulness--filling however one might--became an entrepreneurial activity--a business model--and then a branded corporate product line. Along the way, government regulations for safety, pricing, and environmental protection came into play.
The emergence pf EV charging infrastructure has some similarities and some differences to the advent of gas stations. (Photo above: Charging station with NEMA connector for electric AMC Gremlin used by Seattle City Light in 1973.) Cities that are deeply committed to decarbonizing their transportation systems have been investing directly in installing public charging stations. By 2020, for instance, Oslo will have more than 3,000 chargers available to the public. At the same time, EV owners are charging their vehicles at home--a filling option that wasn't available at the start of the gasoline age. And the expansion of EV charging will have implications for the electricity grid.
Some 100-year-old gas stations have become museums and someday all gas stations will have been retired. EV charging will be as normal and pervasive as gas stations are today.
