By the end of 2021, 100 McDonald’s restaurant outlets across Italy will have 2 electric vehicle charging points each.
The move is in line with McD’s efforts in facilitating the transition towards electric mobility, which is going to be the future of the automotive landscape worldwide.
A new partnership between McDonald’s Italia and energy transformation specialists Enel X was established yesterday, which will see the installation of 200 charging points for electric vehicles inside the 100 McDonald’s car parks across Italy.
It is said that the charging stations will offer a new service to customers, allowing two vehicles to be charged simultaneously with available power of up to 22 kW in AC for the “JuicePole” charger and of at least 50 kW in DC for the “JuicePump” charger.
With the latter, an average of about 30 minutes will be sufficient to “charge up” with electrical energy, the equivalent of the average time it takes McDonald’s customers to have a meal inside the restaurant.
It is said that the charging points working at maximum output will lead to a net saving of over 1,800 tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, a figure that corresponds to the CO2 absorbed by over 100,000 trees in one year.
“We are the biggest restaurant chain in the world and we feel we should get directly involved in some of today’s more urgent social and environmental challenges,” states Tommaso Valle, Corporate Relations and Sustainability Director at McDonald’s Italia.
The decision to implement this project strengthens McDonald’s commitment towards sustainability, the cornerstone of the entire company strategy and which develops right through the entire supply chain, from the field to the tray.
“The agreement with McDonald’s enables people to easily and consciously approach the world of electric mobility, the only real option for travelling with due regard for the environment,” stated Federico Caleno, Head of e-mobility Italy for Enel X.
On the basis of available figures, the number of electrical vehicles in the world is over 7.7 million, of which over 2.25 million were sold in 2019 alone.
To date, Enel X has installed over 10,500 charging points in Italy and expects to reach a total of 28,000 by 2022.
Thanks to Enel X’s e-Mobility Emission Saving tool it has been calculated that the charging services provided using the connected infrastructures have enabled its customers to travel over 100 million km on electricity and saving the environment over 12 million kg of CO2, equal to the quantity absorbed by about 670,000 trees in one year.
Well done, McDonald’s Italia. Let us hope that the franchise does something similar in Malaysia as well in the near future in an effort to save the world and the environment.
