Harbor Blvd snapshot: the routine settles in
A few weeks after opening, the charge-and-coffee run is just part of the Costa Mesa routine — another community post from the E-Station feed as the EV lounge becomes an everyday stop.
Insights
EV charging is coming to the coffee run. We track the news, the rollouts, and the posts worth seeing — and put every live location in the store finder.
The EV lounge as a third place
A LinkedIn take from Angela M. Williams, MPH on the Costa Mesa E-Station: a charging stop that doubles as somewhere to actually relax — Orange County discovering that 20 minutes on a 400-volt charger is exactly one coffee long.
Charge-and-coffee, the reel
The E-Station's opening weeks in one reel — stalls full, patio busy, coffee in hand. The kind of organic coverage a converted 1950s gas station earns when it becomes the most futuristic Starbucks in California.
OC's new charge-and-coffee stop hits TikTok
Orange County realtor @tinasellsoc takes TikTok through the new EV-lounge Starbucks — and what a landmark charging hub on Harbor Blvd means for the neighborhood around it.
Now open: Costa Mesa Dave tours the E-Station
Local creator Costa Mesa Dave walks the just-opened Starbucks E-Station — Teslas and EVs pulling off Harbor Blvd for the first charge-and-coffee runs at the converted gas station.
The first Starbucks EV lounge: the Costa Mesa E-Station
A 1950s gas station at 2096 Harbor Blvd in Costa Mesa was reborn as the Starbucks E-Station — an EV-first lounge format with 11 NACS stalls (DC fast charging plus Level 2), tap-to-pay, and almost no non-EV parking. Charge the car, drink the coffee: the clearest signal yet of what an EV-era Starbucks looks like.
"An elevated EV charging experience across America"
A dealer's-eye view of the Mercedes-Benz × Starbucks rollout: 400 kW chargers powered by 100% clean energy, open to every vehicle brand, along the full 1,400-mile I-5 corridor from Canada to Mexico. "The collaboration will uplift the charging experience for all EV drivers," says MB HPC CEO Andrew Cornelia; Starbucks calls it refueling sustainably.
Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging goes live at Starbucks
The first Mercedes-Benz HPC hub at a Starbucks opened in Red Bluff, California (525 Adobe Rd) on the I-5 corridor — four stalls delivering up to 400 kW, NACS and CCS connectors on every stall, and tap-to-pay. It is the first of more than 100 planned Starbucks sites on the route between Washington and Southern California.
100+ Starbucks stores joining the Mercedes-Benz network
Mercedes-Benz announced 400 kW chargers for more than 100 Starbucks locations along Interstate 5 — roughly one every 100 miles from the Canadian border to Southern California — with the wider MB HPC network expected to reach nearly half of U.S. states by the end of 2026. A 10–80% charge takes about 20 minutes: one coffee.
Where it started: the Volvo × ChargePoint pilot
Volvo and ChargePoint kicked off the original pilot — up to 60 DC fast chargers at as many as 15 Starbucks stores along the 1,350-mile route between Seattle and Denver, spaced about every 100 miles. The first site was activated at the Starbucks on University Ave in Provo, Utah. Most of those pilot stores are in our finder today.