Looking for you nearest public charger for your electric car? It could be just down the road at your local Sainsbury’s, Tesco or Aldi, as supermarkets continue to expand their public charging offerings.
Last year the total number of supermarkets offering electric vehicle (EV) charge points rose 59 per cent – with motorists now able to charge at more one-in-10 stores, analysis from Zapmap and the RAC shows.
1,616 stores had charging points in 2023, compared to 1,015 stores in 2022, which means 13 per cent of all supermarkets in the UK now have charging facilities (including those without parking facilities).
Over half (55 per cent) of all supermarket EV locations now offer high-powered charging facilities too.
The expansion of the public charging network continues, with more EV drivers able to charge when they shop thanks to the massive increase in supermarkets with EV charging in the last year. With 600 new locations added in the last 12 months, there are almost 3,000 EV chargepoints now in place at supermarkets
Ultra-rapid charging can add up 80 per cent charge to many new EVs in less than 10 minutes – browse the aisles, fill your trolley, checkout and come out to a car with replenished range.
And while charging installations increased by over two-thirds (69 per cent) overall, crucially, there was a 145 per cent increase in the rapid or ultra-rapid charger installations.
With 600 new locations added in the last 12 months, there are almost 3,000 EV chargepoints now in place at supermarkets.
Supermarkets are one of the most popular charging locations for EV drivers across the UK, as Zapmap’s latest EV charging survey demonstrates.
Although motorway services and EV charging hubs displaced supermarket car parks as the most popular UK charging locations in 2023, supermarkets remain in the top three of the most regularly used location types, with more than 35 per cent of respondents indicating they regularly stop at supermarkets to charge, as they are part of a regular routine whereby drivers can tie charging into their weekly shop.
Melanie Shufflebotham, COO & Co-founder of the UK’s leading charge point mapping service Zapmap, said: ‘With around 3,000 charge points now in place at supermarkets across the UK, it’s really positive to see this sustained growth at such popular charging locations for EV drivers.
‘Not only did the total number of supermarkets offering EV charge points rise by almost 60 per cent last year, but we also saw significant growth in the number of those all-important rapid and ultra-rapid chargers.’
Where does UK public charging infrastructure currently stand?
The growth of the UK’s public charging infrastructure should continue at an increasingly fast pace after the Government’s announcement this week that it will inject a further £185million into council funding for the public chargepoint rollout.
While the Government didn’t responded to calls to slash VAT on public charging in its Spring Budget to bring it inline with home charging and break the ‘driveway divide’, it has subsequently approved payments to 44 additional councils to support the delivery of thousands of chargepoints across England.
The £185million is the latest instalment of the £381m Local Electric Vehicle (LEVI) fund to councils – will be made available to councils from Torbay to Tees Valley to help residents charge their vehicles.
The latest figures from the Department of Transport also showed a steady increase in public EV charging points.
As of March, the UK has 56,983 public charging points, whereas this time last year the total number was just 38,737.
The current total charging device percentage change year on year stands at 47 per cent but in March 2023 it was 31 per cent less.
We started 2024 with 10,491 rapid or ultra-rapid chargers, which is a significant jump on the 6,887 rapid or ultra-rapid chargers in the UK at the start of 2023.
So which supermarket tops the charging league?
Tesco has the biggest EV charging network with 1,305 devices now in place across 4,859 shops but it doesn’t score well on rapid charging – only 10 per cent of its EV locations offer rapid charging
‘Every little helps’ Tesco customers because it comes out on top as the biggest overall charging network, with 1,305 devices now in place across 4,859 shops.
Taking second place was Morrisons with 413 charging devices at 69 per cent (344) of its 497 stores. Lidl brought home the bronze with 346 chargers at nearly a third (30 per cent) of its 960 stores in 2023.
But don’t commit to a loyalty card just yet because this could be all set to change.
Sainsbury’s has seen the biggest year-on-year growth thanks to the launch of its ultra-rapid network Smart Charge. After installing just 53 units in 2022, the retailer nearly tripled its total device numbers in 2023 by adding 104 new chargers to its stores.
Sainsbury’s launched its own electric car charging brand in January, becoming the first supermarket in the UK to introduce and run its own EV charging network
These are the Sainsbury’s stores where Smart Charge devices are already available
And when it comes to rapid charging the stakes are very different – both Morrisons and Lidl outperform Tesco.
A massive 99 per cent (342) of Morrison stores with chargers have rapid devices and this is only set to increase after ultra-rapid provider Motor Fuel Group acquired hundreds of the grocer’s forecourts in January.
91 per cent (258) of Lidl’s EV locations have rapid chargers, while Sainsbury’s had the highest average number of rapid chargers per location, at four units per store across the 22 shops that provided high-powered charging.
But overall leader Tesco doesn’t fair well when it comes to rapid charging: Only 10 per cent (132) of its 1,305 devices were rapid or ultra-rapid. And because so many Tesco stores are convenience ones without parking, only 12 per cent of all Tesco sites had the capability to charge an EV.
Lidl outperforms Tesco when it comes to rapid and ultra-rapid chargers, with 91 per cent (258) of its EV locations offering people charging of around 10-80 per cent in less than 30 minutes
Already a massive 99 per cent (342) of Morrison stores with chargers have rapid devices and this is only set to increase after ultra-rapid provider Motor Fuel Group acquired hundreds of the grocer’s forecourts in January
Worst of all is Asda.
Asda uninstalled a large proportion of its devices after its contract ended with bp pulse, dropping by 72 per cent from 165 in 2022 to just 46 in place through 2023.
This represents a drop of 81 per cent from the 246 devices it had installed in 2021 and leaves it with facilities at just 22 stores, only 2 per cent of its entire estate.
RAC EV spokesperson Simon Williams said: ‘Concerns about the lack of public charge points are one of the biggest reasons why drivers aren’t choosing to go electric when buying their next car, with six-in-10 telling us this.
‘It’s very encouraging to see supermarkets doing their best to allay these fears by ramping up EV charging facilities across a greater proportion of their estates.
‘The data also shows a surge of investment in the very fastest chargers. These rapid and ultra-rapid units are the closest drivers can get to filling up with fuel because they offer the fastest charging speeds, helping to reduce queues so motorists can resume their journeys as quickly as possible.’
