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Cracker Barrel Will Offer EV Fill Ups in Tennessee

Your electric car could be juicing up on power while you’re filling up on comfort food at Cracker Barrel restaurants throughout Tennessee starting this spring in a pilot electric-vehicle charging program.

The popular family restaurant chain is harkening back to its roots when it sold gasoline at its locations. The oil embargo of the 1970s knocked Cracker Barrel out of the fuel business until its announcement that it was going to have charging stations for electric vehicles at select locations.

it will become a major participant in The EV Project, an initiative to increase the adoption of electric vehicles by creating a solid charging infrastructure across the country. The EV Project is managed by ECOtality, a leader in clean electric transportation and storage technologies.

According to a Cracker Barrel news release, “Guests will be able to get an 80 percent charge – the recommended charge – in just under a half hour at the 12 Cracker Barrel locations which will have the DC Fast Charging stations. Guests visiting the 12 locations that will have the Blink EV L2 chargers, which are slower than the DC Fast Charging stations, will be able to top off their tanks, so to speak, while eating some good country cookin’ and browsing in the retail shop.” [OK, has anybody ever been seated and eaten a meal at Cracker Barrel in under 30 minutes?]

Cracker Barrel is working with ECOtality, the project manager for The EV Project, to install Blink electric vehicle chargers at select locations in “The Tennessee Triangle,” the 425-mile stretch of interstate highway that connects Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. Twenty four Cracker Barrel locations will have chargers. A guest could, if desired, drive the entire 425 miles of the Tennessee Triangle, re-charging at Cracker Barrel locations along the way.

Plans are to start installation of the electric vehicle chargers in the spring of 2011 and to be completed within a few months. People will be able to check the Cracker Barrel website to see which locations have installed EV chargers.

Twelve of the 24 Cracker Barrel locations that will have chargers installed have been identified. Located along the Tennessee Triangle, these locations will support EV drivers traveling along the corridor connecting Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga:

  • Athens
  • Cleveland
  • Cookeville
  • Crossville
  • East Ridge
  • Farragut
  • Harriman
  • Kimball
  • Lebanon
  • Manchester
  • Murfreesboro
  • Nashville – Stewart’s Ferry Pike
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