A new kind of charging station is cropping up in the US — and you can’t miss it. Quite literally. Dubbed ‘EV totems’, these tall poles pair electric vehicle chargers with high-definition advertising screens mounted several meters above the ground.
The idea is part infrastructure upgrade, part digital billboard. Blink, the American firm rolling out the concept, is already active in Belgium. But could these towering hybrids find a home here, too?
The appeal is obvious: visibility. Gas stations have spent the last century perfecting the art of being seen, hoisting giant illuminated signs high above the roadside. EV chargers, by contrast, are often relegated to the corners of car parks, hidden from view unless you know exactly where to look. Even chargers at gas stations tend to fade into the forecourt background, dwarfed by signage for fossil fuels.
Beaming out advertising
Blink’s totem aims to change that, acting as both beacon and billboard. The first models, developed with Universal Media, went live last month in a retail complex in Salt Lake City, Utah. While drivers plug in, the elevated screens beam out targeted, location-based advertising — data-tracked, of course. Blink CEO Mike Battaglia calls it “a dynamic media and mobility platform”.
It is also, less romantically, a new revenue stream. Installing a high-speed charger can cost upwards of €150,000; renting the space above it to advertisers might make that investment pay back faster. Fuel stations have long used forecourt screens for this purpose, and if you’ve got to wait 20 minutes for a charge, advertisers are counting on you to look up.
Fastned at the forefront
Still, there’s a case to be made for the visibility alone. As electric mobility moves through its adoption phase, the case for prominently signposting chargers, much like gasoline pumps, sounds compelling. Not only for convenience, but to help erode lingering range anxiety. It should have been there all along.
Fastned, the Dutch firm operating in Belgium, realized this and has embraced the principle with its solar-canopied stations — elegant timber structures that stand out on the highway. They also use more traditional roadside totems.
American curiosity
Blink, meanwhile, has been busy expanding its Belgian network under the Blue Corner brand, partnering with Group Bernaerts in Antwerp and Mechelen, and signing a decade-long deal to install 280 chargers at business and conference centers nationwide. By the end of this year, the number of Blink-operated chargers here will have doubled.
Whether their giant advertising poles leap the Atlantic is another question. Belgium’s dense cities and growing EV market may make a strong business case. For now, though, the towering totems with advertising remain an American curiosity.
