Last updated on April 20th, 2020 at 11:38 pm
In Sweden, McDonald's has 55 electric charging stations dotted across the country, making it the country's largest restaurant chain to have charging points in its premises. The American-based company is now planning on making all Swedish McDrives electrified before the end of 2020.
For a company that welcomes in excess of 400,000 customers each day, McDonald's has a large influence on the country's wellbeing and infrastructure; it can single-handily change people's perceptions on electric vehicles and make the technology more accessible by offering an influx of charging points across the country.
Sweden isn't the only country that has benefitted from McDonald's investment in electric charging points, as branches in the Netherlands have had electric charging points installed too. It was in late 2018, when the collaboration between Vattenfall (now known as Neon), a utility company that provides electricity, gas and heat, and McDonald's spawned a three-year contract to bring two 50kW rapid chargers to 168 McDonald's branches. Better still, the electricity that's generated from these charging points comes from 100% clean renewable energy.
To make it easier for drivers, the fast-food chain is adding a digital display to its iconic sign; showing that said restaurant has an electric charger on-site. “Our sign is a new and fun take on a classic way of doing just that,” said Christoffer Rönnblad, Marketing Director at McDonald’s in Sweden. To add, the company also quotes the current price of a Big Mac meal and Happy Meal. Brilliant.
With the number of electric-powered cars rapidly increasing in Scandanavian countries, the investment into the electric infrastructure is a no-brainer for companies: it's an easy way of attracting new customers and shows that even a large multi-million-pound company like McDonald's cares about the environment. I'd expect to see even more companies adopting such a strategy and would also like to think that McDonald's among international companies will soon invest in the UK and US infrastructure.