Oh, except you’ve spent a few decades storing and spilling toxic liquids there, so that’s a bit tricky too. Add to that the fact that they aren’t necessarily in good locations for a high-power connection to the electricity grid, and you’d think it probably makes sense to start selling them off. The problem for those who have invested large amounts in forecourt real estate is that these stations are generally the wrong size for charging points - you need bigger parking areas and bigger retail areas - and many of them are not where you’d actually want to spend much time: on noisy town-centre roundabouts or on the edge of a busy bypass. Now, you could beef up the shopping/dining experience at some petrol stations, but it’s not really enough. (As an aside, I think this is very healthy: on long drives, it’s important to take a proper break every so often, not just for your own wellbeing, but for the safety of those you may be approaching at speed later in the journey. One of our favourite superchargers is in a multi-storey car park near Bristol, where you can just plug in and stroll over to John Lewis to purchase pillowcases, or whatever takes your fancy. Instead, you can be inside the car watching the latest episode of your favourite show, or having a drink at the nearby cafe, or taking the dog for a walk. Even when I’m charging my Tesla at speeds that would have astonished me when I first started driving EVs, I’m still generally there for 20-30 minutes, rather than the five minutes I would have spent filling up with petrol.īut the good news is that you don’t have to stand there while it’s happening, shivering, breathing in those lovely fumes, and wondering if your shoes will reek of diesel for the rest of the day. The bad news is that it takes longer, as we all know. The problem is that electric cars give you a very different refuelling experience from cars burning dinosaur juice. There was one thing we were all pretty much agreed on about its future: that it hadn’t got one. We had gathered, from both sides of the Atlantic, to consider some of the implications of technology changes on their business, and one of the topics discussed was the future of the retail forecourt: the petrol station, as most of us know it today. If you’re already familiar with it, you can vote on who pronounces it best, and if you think everybody has got it wrong, you can contribute a recording yourself.Ī few years ago, I was involved in a big brainstorming session with some senior staff from BP. The great thing about this is that it isn’t an automated voice these are real people speaking, and you can often compare the same word being spoken by people from different regions. If you need to call for a helicopter to lift you off a German mountain, Forvo will both tell you the word, and how to say it. Passing through Scotland, and want to ask the way to Culzean or Glen Garioch without the locals sniggering at you? You can then return confident and ready to impress! This is a really useful site, which I’ve somehow missed before now:Īre you wandering through an art gallery, and become fearful that your new date will laugh at you if you mispronounce trompe-l’oeil? Never fear! Just pop to the loo with your phone for a moment, and Forvo will let you find and listen to a number of native French speakers saying exactly that phrase.
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