Dive Brief:

• GetGo Café + Market, the c-store arm of supermarket chain Giant Eagle, held a grand opening ceremony last week for its proprietary EV charging program, GetGo Energy, a GetGo spokesperson said in an email.
• The first pair of 150 kilowatt direct-current fast chargers can be found at the company’s location in Lewis Center, Ohio, about 20 miles north of Columbus. The company plans to announce additional locations in the coming months, the spokesperson said. 
• The GetGo-branded program was first announced in 2020, when the c-store began putting Tesla Superchargers at some locations. The chargers are compatible with all EV types and can fully charge a vehicle in 30 minutes or less.

Dive Insight:

When GetGo announced its EV charging ambitions, the retailer saw this feature as “the next hole to fill for commuters,” Rug Phatak, chief of staff and senior director of marketing for GetGo Café + Market, said in a December 2020 interview with the Pittsburgh Technology Council.

And the new GetGo Energy location is the next step on that journey.  

“We have partnerships with other EV charging companies at several of our locations, but these chargers are the first that proudly carry the GetGo name,” said Brandon Daniels, GetGo’s manager of public relations, at the ceremony, in an email from the company. “With these GetGo Energy chargers, we’re launching the next generation of our energy services, one aligned with our vision for a cleaner, more sustainable future.”

While the company began its EV charging journey in 2020 with Tesla chargers at one store, its plans were much broader. 

“Our vision is to allow customers to be able to drive across our markets with an electric vehicle,” said Phatak in the interview.

The Tesla Superchargers were part of the equation, but because not everyone who used EVs drove a Tesla, “we’re going to be augmenting the Tesla stations with our own chargers,” he added. 

That side of the project began rolling out on April 4 with the Lewis Center grand opening. EV drivers will be able to charge at the location for free through May 19.

The event also included members of Drive Electric Columbus, an independent, non-profit electric vehicle advocacy organization in the area, who educated visitors about the vehicles and charging them.

GetGo joins other major c-store players in diving into the EV space. 7-Eleven announced that in addition to a planned 500 EV chargers in 250 locations in North America, it had created 7Charge, its EV charging network and app. Pilot Co. continues to work on its plans for 2,000 chargers at 500 locations, while TravelCenters of America announced plans for 1,000 chargers at 200 of its travel stops. 

Pittsburgh-based GetGo has more than 270 stores in western Pennsylvania, Ohio, northern West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana in a variety of formats, with some locations also including WetGo car washes.