Domestique Coffee plans EV-centered fueling stations
Article written by A.J. O’Leary of the Birmingham Business Journal
Gas stations are a hallmark of the American landscape born out of the combustion engine: quick, cheap and dirty. A local coffee shop is planning to reimagine fueling stations for a cleaner, more efficient future built around a new set of wheels.
Nathan Pocus, who founded Domestique Coffee with his brother, Michael, plans to build a series of new Domestique rest stops and charging stations for electric vehicles over the next several years.
Click image to see more renderings for the EV stations
The company has partnered with California-based FreeWire Technologies to begin installing electric vehicle charges at its existing coffee shops and distribution centers and is launching an app to allow drivers to reserve charging ports this summer.
Pocus’ vision for the new stores is a specialty coffee shop that one would want to hang out in during the roughly 15-20 minutes it takes to rapid-charge an electric vehicle during a long road trip.
“We are the Love's Travel Stop for EV cars,” Pocus said. “But it's an elevated experience, because we understand the core customer who drives EV is the core customer of specialty coffee. And so that's how we are connecting these two functions.”
The company does not have a concrete timeline for opening its first location. But Domestique already has partnered with Ashipa Electric to install solar energy apparatus at Domestique locations.
Now, the next step for the company is finding locations, namely in high-traffic areas of the state frequently used for longer trips, like the I-20 corridor or I-65.