Circle K Sunkus To Use Prius Plug-ins in Fleet
18 December 2009
Nikkei. Japan convenience store chain Circle K Sunkus Co. plans to use the new Prius Plug-in hybrid vehicles (earlier post) as company cars.
As a start, the convenience store chain operator will deploy a Prius Plug-in Hybrid at its office in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, next Thursday. This vehicle will be used by supervisors for their store visits in the city of Toyota.
After gathering usage data on the car, the company plans to introduce six more at the Okazaki office and three at the Yokohama office by spring. Circle K Sunkus plans to deploy more Prius Plug-in Hybrids to other offices as Toyota steps up sales
The company also plans to set up 200V chargers at a total of 14 stores in Aichi and Kanagawa prefectures. Located in store parking lots, these chargers will allow customers to recharge their own vehicles for free initially.
Excellent first move.
Early worldwide charge station standards are required before every city/state/nation install their own various different type.
Posted by: HarveyD | 18 December 2009 at 09:03 AM
Circle K has a lot of locations in the US. I assume they have similar convenience store/gas station operations in other countries.Maybe they will set the standard by being first to market on a large scale.
Posted by: JMartin | 18 December 2009 at 10:17 AM
Circle K could provide XX kWh free charge when you purchase at their store. Facilitated in a store card with points/kWh value - you use it to charge yoru EV at the franchise or perhaps other (municipal) charge stations.
Posted by: sulleny | 19 December 2009 at 11:08 AM
This is where inductive pad charging may come in. You do not spend much time at a convenience store, but maybe more at shopping centers and malls. You pull in, the light comes on and you have the charges added to your monthly utility bill.
Posted by: SJC | 21 December 2009 at 11:23 AM