Kohl's Is Electric Vehicle Friendly

I was recently visiting family and we stopped by a Kohl's store. As I've mentioned before I have a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) that I love. I noticed the charging stations in front of the store. The unit has symbols for credit cards, so I didn't park and charge. I believe that electricity in parking lots should be free. It is in Montana, North Dakota, and Wisconsin already.

Instead I went home and did some research on the company who built and installed the charging stations. They are an independent company trying to get many retailers and businesses to install their charging stations.

These networks of users makes me uneasy. It reminds me of the days when ATMs were based on specific networks. You could only use ATMs that worked on the same protocol as the one your bank used. Those networks still exist, but we finally standardized things enough that all of the ATMs I see work with all of the networks I know about. Maybe some day, electric charging stations will get there. It won'e happen as long as the companies making the charging stations are fighting for the tiny market share of electric vehicle owners and the smaller market share of businesses friendly to electric vehicle owners.

As I continued to do my research I found that the company that Kohl's is working with allows the retailer to set the price for the charge available. You can put money on account with the network and work that off at the different retailers. The charing station company even allows the retailers to offer their charging service for free, and you don't have to sign up and get an account with the charging station network.

With that I went to their online map of charging stations and found a number of different Kohl's stores. All of them have set their price for charging at FREE. Yes, Kohl's is doing the right thing. They are providing the option for charging while you're in their store, which is encouraging electric vehicle owners to spend more time in the store. Retailers like Kohl's are built on impulse buys. This is why Apple started opening retail stores because they could provide direct to consumer information about their products and encourage impulse buys because they knew once you tried one of their computers or mobile devices with the kind, guiding hand or a sale associate, you were likely to buy. If you spend more time in Kohl's because you want to get the greatest charge for your trip home, then you're more likely to find a couple extra things to buy that you don't realize you need until you see it on the shelf or the end cap.

So here is my hat off to Kohl's for doing the right thing for renewable energy. Thank you for the free charging stations. I'm telling all my friends, especially the ones with Electric Vehicles, including PHEVs, that they can get a free charge when they shop at Kohl's.