McDonalds to cook up EV charging station network

McDonald's of Sweden is going to start serving electricity as well as the usual Big Mac and fries, according to Elforsk, an electricity R&D operation co-owned by Svensk Energi (Swedenergy) and Svenska Kraftnät - the Swedish national grid. McDonalds McCharger McCharger: want to be fried with that? Elforsk will develop and …

[Anonymous Coward]

McMarketing

A feeble attempt at greenwashing,

McD would do more for the environment and their customers if they just closed their Fat Food (not a typo) outlets.

Although in the time it takes to eat and regurgitate your McMuck meal you could possibly get enough charge into your EV to counter the extra weight you've gained from eating the meal.

Paris, I'd go large for her.

[Code Monkey]

Eateries

I'm with you on not calling them restaurants. You might be even more comfortable with "branches".

[Bad Beaver]

lolz

If each Micky just gets one of those... you can charge exactly two cars there. Unless some brazen petroliac has parked his SUV in front of the post. It is a nice and smart move—Micky D is everywhere—but there need to be *many* posts in each lot for this to every make sense.

[Anonymous Coward]

Drive-in conundrum

How long does it take to eat fast food ?

How long does it take to charge a 'Leccy' ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop dissing McDaddies

@Clint Sharp: Why do people McD get so much bad press about how unhealthy their food is? If McD's were as bad as everyone seems to say, then why are they still in business? Call me blinded by capitalism, but I say supply and demand usually balance with each other... stop the demand for McD's and the restaurants will start to close.

And good for them opening up electric points... it just needs one company to get the ball rolling and once there's as many charge points as there are petrol stations, we might just find out if electric power is the way forward after all (although personally I don't think it is).

Paris, because she could charge my point.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't they?

Why not just sell their cooking oil to people? You can run a car on that.

[Richard Cartledge]

Karen Matthews

The pikies will love this, it will be stolen caravans, naked kids and rabid dogs galore.

[Elmer Phud]

@Mc Marketing

"and regurgitate your McMuck meal"

Careful -- they'll use that to prove they are in to recycling.

"Vincent: And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?"

Either a 'I'll get my coat' or 'Paris' - can't make up my mind

[Anonymous Coward]

Eatery

Indeed. To call it a restaurant is to dignify it beyond what it deserves. All we need to do now is legally oblige them to call their "burgers" something like "mechanically recovered fat-laden cow-slurry discs", and perhaps people will start to realise what they're eating...

[Chris Williams]

Forward thinking

If enough McDonald's customers drive electric cars (and at the risk of generalising, I would think that a greater proportion drive Saxos with fat tyres and exhaust pipes big enough to fire tennis balls out of), then provision is going to have to be made to ensure that there is enough juice not only for wheelspinning and popping doughnuts in the car park, but to wind down the electric window two or three miles down the road, where the "recyclable" and "environmentally responsible" packaging will be lobbed out and strewn across the road, and where it will remain for weeks to come.

Of course McDonald's keep their own street clean, and very proud they are of that fact, but the world at large -- even a mile or two away -- invariably suffers from the packaging thoughtlessly discarded by its patrons.

Add an electric juice point to an operation that churns out nasty, characterless food by the ton, and they can boast about how green they are.

Not even a hint of irony, either from me or from them.

[Mathieu GUILLAUME]

It may be a marketing coup...

but at least they're doing it !

We've been hearing about electric and/or hybrid cars for years, but the number of gas stations equipped with a power charger is abysmal. Someone needs to be a bit proactive if we want electric cars to be a viable solution someday.

[Nano nano]

Surely ..

"The first 230V, 16A pilot McPost ..."

also, slight kudos to McD for their free Wifi - more than many hotels can offer !!

[Kevin Bailey]

This is a great step

There's nothing to stop other places from setting up rechargers - car parks, zoos and other all day entertainment.

It's be an extra source of income from just reslling electricity.

Also, in Sweden these are very similar to the links used to keep cars from freezing up during winter parking.

[Martin Gregorie]

A greenwash joke

McDonalds are just taking the piss here.

A 230v 16A charge point is a joke. That's a whole 3.68 kW, which means that it would take over 14 hours to fully charge a Tesla's 53 kWh battery.

[Chris]

charge time

I agree with all the other commenters on the disparity between the amount of time needed to charge an electric vehicle and the average stay at McDonald's.

That is why fully electric cars are never going to catch on over here in the States. Either you need to be able to fully charge it in around 5 minutes (the same time to fill a tank with gas/petrol), or it needs to be able to run all day on a single charge and recharge overnight no matter where you might find yourself - particularly every parking space at hotels and motels, long term garages at train stations, airports and the like, etc.

Until that happens, they will just be a curiosity, like horseless carriages were 100 years ago.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Christopher P. Martin

Yes, quite right. Potential eaters should get themselves to Greggs where they can enjoy slurried pork by-products in pastry. Mmmm and so healthy too!

[Martin]

@Stop dissing McDaddies

> Why do people McD get so much bad press about how unhealthy their food is?

> If McD's were as bad as everyone seems to say, then why are they still in business?

Why does heroin get such a bad press? If it was as bad as everyone seems to say, then why do people still buy it?

[Kjetil]

Currencies..

I'm nut sure what SKr10m is supposed to be, but if you meant "Svenska kronor", it's SEK, not SKr

[Anonymous Coward]

@charge time

"Until that happens, they will just be a curiosity, like horseless carriages were 100 years ago."

So how many petrol stations were around 100 years ago?

As it is now, the manufacturers are just barely able to get 1.5 times the miles per gallon they did 100 years ago (provided you could find a couple hundred miles of smooth road then) altho you can travel twice as fast now.

http://www.barefootsworld.net/ford-t-specs.html

I personally applaud McD's for at least making an attempt at helping get people off the Oil Barron's treadmill but alas most electricity is produced by burning a fossil fuel of some from and the distribution of it is mostly controlled by the government where it is produced which inevitable will end up with extra taxes (even for your house) as petrol sales decrease for the "greener?" electricity instead.

I see two problems holding E-vehicles back.

1 - the propulsion technology (motor) is over 100 years old. Nicolas Tesla invented the induction motor to more efficiently use the AC he and Westinghouse were then producing (with only minor changes to the original production facility). The DC from the battery pack has to be converted to AC for use now.

2 - the vehicle itself has to be robust enough to pass all the government safety requirements created to protect the occupant(s) which adds weight thereby reducing efficiency/range even further.

Mines the one with the battery pack!

[Yordan Georgiev]

The business model of the future !!!

Yes , indeed !!!!

After 5 years you would save 50% of your family burger meal bill , by charging your car at the same time ... It is is win , win , win .. game.

Everybody wins , except for the oil oligars ... , so on which side are you ?!

Thus the needed infa for the electrified future will be build much faster ...

I predicted some 7 years ago to my friends that after 10 years all phones will have cameras ... Everybody laughed ..

Now I preduct that after 10 years it will be exception to have car running on some kind of chimical fuel ...

Simply because ... In 10 years batteries and electronics CAN evolve to be much cheaper , more efficient and that any devices based on chemical reactions ... It is simply the law of physics + economics ...

So in 10 years you would be stupid to pay for something that costs more , polutes more and it is more noisy and health hazard ...

So please laugh at me ... again ...