CHARLOTTE, N.C. – More electric vehicle charging stations are popping up across North Carolina.

According to the website ‘ChargeHub’, there are a little over 1,600 public chargers available in North Carolina. That’s up a couple hundred from last year.

Since it takes about 20 to 30 minutes for a quick charge, most stations are being placed in front of retail stores and restaurants.

Charlotte-area startup company Koulomb recently opened its first public fast-charging station in Matthews near Mario’s Italian Restaurant.

Restaurant owner John Fisichello says the chargers have been helpful in drawing in new customers to his business at the Chestnut Arbor Shopping Center.

“I’m seeing increased traffic already of faces I’ve never seen coming in,” Fisichello said. “Sitting at the bar and saying, ‘I’m just charging my car, and I wanted to find a place for a cold beer’.”

Koulomb co-founders Justin Taylor and Jeff Constantineau say since there are more EVs on the road than chargers, so it didn’t take long for their first user to show up at their station in Matthews.

“We actually just moved the cones,” Taylor said. “And within two minutes, we had a customer pull in and just start charging their car.”

Constantineau says they aim to open a new fast-charging station around the Charlotte area each month.

They plan on placing them near popular spots, like Mario’s.

“Normally we would have expected spikes in usage at commuter times, but what we see here is actually lunchtime usage, and weekend usage, which speaks to the Mario’s draw,” Constantineau said.

As more drivers go electric, Fisichello says he’s grateful for a new way to draw in more customers.

“To have this opportunity with Koulomb with the EV charging stations, it’s just a dream come true in a lot of ways,” Fisichello said.

According to NCDOT, over 60,000 Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) were registered in March, that’s up by about 17,000 from May 2022.

Gov. Roy Cooper has said that the goal is to have 1.25 million EVs on the road by 2030.