Taco Bell parking lot in San Francisco gets EV charging stations

A Taco Bell in San Francisco is getting 6 solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations, the first of potentially many more from a company that owns another 215 franchise locations across the U.S. As first reported by Forbes earlier today, the EV stations will be built by Tritium employing software courtesy of ChargeNet, and can reportedly provide a 46-mile charge in 10 minutes. Eventually, the company hopes to integrate food ordering stations into the parking spots so that customers can add some extra juice to their EV rides while waiting for their Chalupas.

"If you can put these DC [direct current] fast chargers in local proximity neighborhoods, like this is, then people feel OK, it's safe to dip my toe in the water,” said Mike Calise, president of Tritium, “Not only that, I'm gonna buy an EV and I'm gonna get a charge really quickly and oh, by the way, I'm gonna get some really good Taco Bell food.”

We don’t know why, but adding “really good Taco Bell food” as a selling point for electric vehicle adoption is perhaps the oddest angle we’ve heard so far. Not that we’re complaining or disagreeing, of course.

A decent bellwether — To be fair, seeing EV charging station adoption cropping up in as mundane a spot as a Taco Bell parking lot is a pretty encouraging signal for the growing acceptance of electric vehicles. Utilizing space in this way could very well sway some drivers into transitioning towards an EV, knowing that it’s that much easier to recharge their cars.

Not the first eco-friendly push from Taco Bell — Believe it or not, this isn’t even the first time Taco Bell has promoted eco-friendly business policies. Just last month, the fast food chain requested frequent “fourth meal” fans to mail back their empty sauce packets for recycling efforts.