REVIEWS AND HOW TOS
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Auto: A Wreck on the Highway
The granddaddy of electric service stations has a new look, but is it too late? Get Charged! may be bound for that big pitstop in the sky
From its humble beginnings in a former Blockbuster store (a retail chain that once provided video amusements to families in the now defunct videotape format), the Get Charged! franchise revolutionized the way America drives. It wasn't the first to offer cheap, one-stop service for cars that ran on what were then called "alternative" fuels, but Get Charged! did it with flair. Founders Kerrick Sonne and Haskel Gertz, self-described "Stanford dropout pond-scum geeks," brought the hip cachet of Silicon Valley to the automotive world. They were the first to realize that when automobiles switched over to clean electric power, the homely, greasy repair garages of the 20th century could be replaced with slick urban entertainment centers and the "grease monkey" of old by a funky, spark-slinging hipster.
The spotless, upscale Get Charged! chain featured cappucinos, family-friendly salons and digital art installations, along with its signature service: clean, green electrical power and pollution-free fuel-cell hydrogen. Discriminating consumers could even select so-called designer power, such as the wildly popular DKNY Quixote Classic — electricity that was generated not only by windmill-powered turbines, but also by wind arising exclusively from non-Greenhouse weather patterns. By the time conventional internal-combustion vehicles were outlawed in most states (except for perennial holdouts Idaho and Montana), the future of Get Charged! seemed all but assured.
That was then. In 2025 came steep sales declines, as consumers switched from staid old electricity to new ultra-clean options like compressed air. Get Charged! failed to adapt. Out of desperation, the chain has given itself a makeover. Once noted for their clean and lean engineer's design sense, Sonne and Gertz have pressed the pedal to the metal and zapped their company into a kind of baroque hysteria. The new Get Charged Tomorrow! entertainment and service center in Palo Alto, Calif., is an Edsel-style marketing disaster. Windmills have spoiled the lines of the once classic solar-clad roof, while the so-called molecular biopond is nothing more than a standard organic trash fermenter. Fuel cells have lost their cachet now that they're cheaper than washing machines, and it's unthinkable for a "full-service" facility to offer anything less than full-scale auto diagnostics.
The bottom line? You had a good run, guys, but it's time to pull over. There's no use trying to jumpstart a dead trend.
— by Eric Rungblest
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