Not much. 15 years ago was 2010. Gas stations in 2025 are very similar to Gas stations from 2010. I doubt they will be too different in 2040. May be a few more EV chargers.
The ones they build here in Norway has changed somewhat from 2010. For one, mainly EV chargers, with just a few, if any, pumps.
Mostly sells food and soft drinks, so hot dogs, fresh sandwiches, baked goods, with much more seating area so you can sit and eat while your car charges.
Has almost no car-related stuff, just one or two small sections of blinker fluid, wunder-baum and such.
And looking at the current trend, there will be far fewer of them, mainly located at strategic positions. The small, local gas stations will go away.
Wait, blinker fluid is actually in stock in Norway? Gotta tell some BMW drivers I know; see if they can get it shipped over.
Just tell them to order it on Amazon ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Blinker-Fluid-16oz-Great-Prank/dp/B07...
I remember reading this piece of news some time ago[0]: “People may not know – BP sells coffee. We sold 150 million cups of coffee last year,” Bernard Looney said in an interview in August (2020), referring to beverage kiosks attached to the company’s fuel stations. “This is a very strong business. It’s a growth business.”
I remember I was impressed by this. The only country I drink gas-station-coffee is Finland (because where else can you find coffee in the middle of nowhere?). So right after I read that article, and the first time I saw a BP gas station I got a coffee. It was 'cheap' and I assume EUR per mg of caffeine was 'ok', but the quality/flavor.. omfg. Also, volcanic hot, so thanks but no thanks.
[0]: https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/433444/bp-doesnt-just...
With the hot-dogs, fries, pizzas, snacks, milk, cereal, alcohol (in some countries), they remind me of "The Profit" with Marcus Lemonis, where he is trying to use each square-inch from a retail store to sell stuff.
I would not be surprised if it looks more like Sam's Club, but otherwise the same. ie App with QR code scanner instead of Credit Card scanner.
I foresee an increase in displays showing ads, as well as cameras with facial recognition.
2040 will be five years after the ban on petrol car sales in the EU, unless that is changed.
With cars lasting around 15 years, we can expect many gas stations to have closed by 2040.
IMO gas stations haven’t changed all that much over the last 50 years (forget the 15) beyond:
- now having larger buildings to incorporate more convenience products (mostly foodstuffs) for sale - more pumps
That's pushing it around a decade too far back.
Today, every gas station is self-serve, and often you can pay by card at the pump.
50 years ago, plenty of gas stations still had attendants. One guy would fill the tank (possibly with 'leaded'), another might give your windshield a quick wipe. You could ask for them to check your oil, too.
Not too much has changed since the '80s though.
> often you can pay by card at the pump.
That’s definitely an innovation that creates convenience but does it really change the commercial function of the station much? You are still essentially transacting for fuel, which is what gas stations have done for decades. My guess is while a lot of stations provide that ability out of customer demand, but the owners would probably rather the customer come in and buy the over priced soda and Doritos along with the gas purchase. I don’t think owner-operators make hardly anything on the fuel sales.
With my comment I was thinking more along the lines of overall footprint of the station and what products are being sold. I think self-service pushed the ability for stations to service more pumps and with a person anchored to a register inside instead of outside attending to the pumps, it allowed the ability of stations to expand to more a mini-mart concept easily where more profitable products (to the station owner) are sold.
EV charging might help bring people into the food, but i suspect you don’t “turn tables” fast enough to make EV charging beneficial enough to bringing enough people inside to warrant devoting a lot of space to that activity.
In Oregon self-serve only became legal a few years ago so we still have plenty of full service stations and attendants to this day.
Gas stations often used to be car service stations as well. We have a few local ones with 3-4 car work garages attached but they are always closed now and used for storage.
It went from pay inside to pay-at-the-pump. That probably also led to the ability for more pumps at busy stations (w/o hiring more people).
In (the parts that I visited in) EU, it means some stations are completely attendant-less and cashless. Can fill up at 3AM in the boonies if you want.
North America has stuck to minimum of 1 staff at all times. No staff = closed.
Maybe that can change.
> North America has stuck to minimum of 1 staff at all times. No staff = closed.
Not true at all at least in California. I regularly fill at unattended stations late at night past midnight. The credit card operated pumps are operable 24/7.
Years ago we were traveling in remote areas of Nevada and running out of gas around 2am, desperately trying to find a gas station (this is before mobile phones, so couldn't just look things up, although maybe even today might be too remote for signal). Finally rolled into a small village with a gas station but everything was dark, so we thought we'll take a nap there until whenever they open. But I noticed the pump light was on, so I gave it a try. Yes, it worked!
They make no money with selling gas, and gas will run out. They make same way money as a cinema. In drinks and food.
And with the electric charging times people will certainly leave the car to shop for something.
So the exact opposite
I agree that they probably would benefit more from food sales off EV charging on a per vehicle basis, but they would need to turn over the chargers to new customers much quicker than what happens now for that to really benefit them.
And more hydrogen stations. Japan keeps investing in them a lot.
Hydrogen seems like going backwards into the future. For personal transport it surely is a dead end, there are no significant upsides to offset the large downsides compared to BEVs.
Perhaps it can work well for certain commercial niches, time will tell.
One upside is Japan having a large undersea hydrogen deposits. And those deposits are not going anywhere.
But personally I agree it's perfect for, say, urban trains, with predictable maintenance. But if Japan keeps investing we may see more than that.
That might help a lot in Japan.
Here in Norway we just have had a handful of hydrogen stations, and of those two went out of business.
Meanwhile almost all new cars here are BEV, even out in many rural areas BEVs are 50% of new sales.
A local store can relatively easily and cheaply install a supercharger. Installing a hydrogen pump is presumably much more expensive as it requires more space and more complex equipment. And it needs refilling by truck, while electricty just flows.
And while EV chargers or cars can catch fire during charging, hydrogen can explode violently[1][2] when mixed with air (the one in Norway registered as an earthquake 30 km, 20 miles, away).
As I said perhaps it will find some niche uses, but widescale adoptation seems very unlikely to me.
[1]: https://norwaytoday.info/news/explosion-sandvika-hydrogen-ta...
[2]: https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/transport/safety-concerns-gr...