Mercedes-Benz and Starbucks on Wednesday announced plans to install EV fast chargers at over 100 of the coffee chain’s U.S. locations, starting on the West Coast.
The first phase of the project will see Mercedes install 400-kw DC fast chargers at Starbucks stores on the I-5 corridor, which runs between the Canadian and Mexican borders and through Starbucks’ home city of Seattle.
Mercedes-Benz EV Charging Hub in Sandy Springs, Georgia
The two companies didn’t say how many chargers would be included in the first phase, or when it would be completed. Subsequent phases of the project will focus on other regions.
While many road-trip charging networks place chargers in Walmart parking lots or at roadside gas stations, Starbucks stores offer locations where drivers might actually want to stop and linger for awhile as their EVs charge. Mercedes isn’t the first automaker to figure this out.
2024 Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV 580 4Matic
In 2022, Volvo announced a pilot program to install 60 ChargePoint DC fast chargers at up to 15 Starbucks stores along a 1,350-mile route between Seattle and Denver, with chargers placed roughly 100 miles apart. Volvo said at the time that these chargers would be open to the public, but that drivers of its own EVs would get free or discounted charging.
Mercedes has more ambitious plans. The automaker is in the midst of a $1 billion buildout of a charging network featuring dedicated sites with amenities like restrooms and vending machines—and using high-powered 400-kw chargers exclusively. The first site opened in November 2023 in Sandy Springs, Georgia, and since then the automaker claims to have added a dozen sites across the South. Mercedes expects to cover “nearly half” of U.S. states in the next 12-18 months.