Stopping for coffee between Washington and California could soon include the option of topping off an electric vehicle battery charge thanks to a new partnership between Starbucks and Mercedes-Benz. The companies on Wednesday announced plans to place 100 chargers at Starbucks locations nationwide, starting with the West Coast’s Interstate-5 corridor.
Exact sites were not announced, but the companies said they will focus on core urban areas and current charging deserts along the 1,400-mile route. The chargers, 400-kilowatt Alpitronics, can increase battery life by 70% in 20 minutes and are equipped to support a wide voltage range and many types of EVs.
With this partnership, Starbucks and Mercedes are helping meet the growing demand for fast chargers along I-5, which runs from Canada to Mexico and cuts through cities including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In recent years, more and more cars traveling this route are electric.
California and Washington rank first and second in EV adoption nationwide, and California alone is home to 36% of the EVs registered nationally. Washington, Oregon and California have committed to only selling non-gasoline powered cars by 2035, as have at least nine other states.
This effort fits into a larger, publicly funded movement to build a green highway along the West Coast, spearheaded by Washington’s Department of Transportation. The state is receiving $71 million from a federal initiative to deploy EV charging to make it easier for businesses and individuals to transition to EVs. Providing charging options on interstate routes, including I-5, is a key component of these initiatives.
Starbucks and Mercedes have ambitious climate goals of their own.
Starbucks aims to cut its emissions in half by 2030 compared to its 2019 emissions, and Mercedes has stated that it plans to run its global productions on renewable energy sources by 2039.
In 2022, Starbucks partnered with Volvo to install 60 EV chargers at 15 Starbucks locations on the 1,350-mile stretch between Seattle and Denver.
Mercedes launched a program in November 2023 to install charging stations. The effort, which is joint-funded by Mercedes and MN8 Energy, a Goldman Sachs spinoff, will invest $1 billion in building a North American charging network. The joint program is footing the bill for the Starbucks installations while the coffee chain is providing the parking spots, according to The Verge.
“At Starbucks, we have a long history of bringing renewable and clean energy projects to connect communities that lack the infrastructure,” Michael Kobori, Starbucks’ chief sustainability officer, said in a statement announcing the new project.
The companies did not provide details on the cost of this specific effort or specify how many of the chargers will come to the West Coast. Future phases of this project will target locations on the East Coast.