Every Little Helps – 1 in 10 supermarkets now offer EV charging

Analysis from ZapMap and the RAC has shown that 600 new UK supermarkets added EV charging points in 2023.

That means that more than one in ten supermarkets now offer EV charging – an impressive 1616 out of the UK’s 12,839 supermarkets – perfect for topping up while doing your weekly shop.

In fact, in 2023 over 10% of all rapid and ultra-rapid EV chargers in the UK were based at supermarket locations. Of those supermarkets, Sainsburys came out top for year-on year growth with the launch of its Smart Charge ultra-rapid network. It almost trebled its charger numbers after having installed 53 in 2022 and then 104 in 2023.

Tesco however had the biggest overall supermarket charging network with 1305 devices in places across 4859 of its stores, though only 132 of these were rapid or ultra-rapid chargers. By comparison, 344 of Morrisons’s 497 stores have 413 chargers in place, but an impressive 342 of those offered rapid charging.

“It’s very encouraging to see supermarkets doing their best by ramping up EV charging facilities across a greater proportion of their estates,” said Simon Williams at the RAC. “As the supermarkets currently dominate UK fuel sales, it makes sense for them to try to retain as much of that market as they can by catering to the needs of all EV drivers looking to recharge as quickly as possible.”

Zapmap’s EV charging survey found that while motorway services and EV charging hubs has replaced supermarket charging locations as the most popular places to charge during 2023, supermarkets remain in the top three of most regularly used locations to charge. 35% reported that they regularly charged at supermarkets to charge as part of their weekly shop routine.