Wawa Is Doubling Its Number of Tesla Charging Stations

Wawa has long been one of the best convenience stores on the East Coast for scoring everything from caffeinated beverages to surprisingly awesome hoagies. And since 1996, when the chain introduced its first fuel store, Wawa has been many drivers go-to stops for gas as well. But in 2017, Wawa entered a new era by also adding Tesla super-charging stations – a program they recently said they plan to expand to twice as many locations.

Wawa spokesperson Lori Bruce told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the company currently operates 16 stations with Tesla Superchargers across four states – New Jersey (six locations), Delaware (three locations), Virginia (two locations), and Florida (five locations) – and the plan is to double that number by the end of 2020. The next planned charging location will once again be in New Jersey (set to open in December), but Bruce said the company’s home state of Pennsylvania will be getting its first Tesla Supercharger Wawa store at some point during the expansion.

Though Tesla’s proprietary Superchargers are faster than other electric charging options – offering about 150 miles of driving with 15 minutes of charging time – that’s still slower than a traditional gas fill up, so as one customer explained, Wawas make for a particularly enticing option. “When you do stop, it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to charge,” Tesla owner Vivianna Van Deerlin told the paper. “So it’s great to have a location that offers food, a bathroom, coffee, and even windshield cleaner fluid. Wawa is ideal.” Yes, there are definitely worse places to kill 15 minutes than a Wawa.

On the flip side of that, it would also seem to make a lot of sense for Wawa to install these charging stations. That additional wait time is a perfect opportunity to sell more raspberry lemonade and chicken corn chowder. The whole thing sounds like a win-win.