5 Places You Wouldn’t Expect To Find An Electric Car Charging Station

By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

Contributing Writer BIO

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield is a self-confessed petrol head. She grew up in a carless family but was able at a very early age to name cars passing her on... More

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Stevens Pass Electric Car Charging Point Launch

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As all-electric and plug-in hybrid cars become more popular, we’ve noticed an increase in the number of public charging stations being installed in grocery store lots, shopping malls and corporate parking garages. 

Locations like these are undoubtedly the most common places you’ll find a place to plug in, because you’ll likely spend a significant amount of time there. 

But what of those locations where charging stations exist against all expectations? Where are the most unusual places you’ll find an electric car recharging? 

Here are just five of our favorites. 

Fast food restaurant

Think of McDonalds, or any other fast food restaurant, and you’ll likely conjure up the classic image of a  fast-food restaurant: a place you visit when you need something to eat quickly, but have no time for anything else. 

So the idea of spending several hours at a McDonalds while your electric car recharges isn’t something we’d necessarily think of as a good time. 

However, earlier this week, Czech power company CEZ opened the first public charging station located at a fast food restaurant in the Czech Republic. 

McDonalds' Charging Station

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Located in Prague, the McDonalds charging station consists of two, regular household outlets, providing 240-volts of power. 

If you’re lucky, it will recharge a car like the 2012 Mitsubishi i in around six hours. 

But could you really cope with staying at any fast-food joint that long?

A whiskey distillery

In the past, we’ve found electric cars in literally every corner of the world, but at a certain whiskey distillery on the Scottish island of Islay, you’ll find a Nissan Leaf being powered by whiskey. 

Enter Bruichladdich distillery, producer of a smokey, peaty, organic whiskey. 

When he owner Mark Reynier reopened it last year, he decided to use anaerobic digesters to turn the thousands of tons of waste by-product made during the distillation process into methane. 

The methane then powers a biofuel generator that produces electricity to charge his Leaf, as well as power the distillery’s electrical systems. 

A whiskey-powered charging station has to be one of the coolest charging stations we’ve ever seen, but if you visit the Bruichladdich distillery you’ll have to remember one thing. 

Don’t drink and drive. 

A mountain pass

Stevens Pass Electric Car Charging Point Launch

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“The hills are alive with the sound of electricity...”

Okay, it might not have the same ring to it as the original, but last year Stevens Pass Ski Resort in Washington state proudly opened not one, but two public charging stations. 

At 4,061 feet high, the charging stations may be some of the highest places to charge in the U.S., but on a good day you’re guaranteed great views of the surrounding mountains. 

And as long as U.S. route 2 isn’t closed by bad weather, visitors in the winter could even enjoy a little bit of on, or off-piste action while their car charges.