UK: Electric car drivers can top up at Tesco for free

EV owners at 100 Tesco stores across the United Kingdom are now able to top up their battery for free while shopping. Volkswagen, Pod Point and Tescos now have their planned charge point rollout well underway.

Volkswagen dealer group Citygate has also sealed an EV partnership with Centrica that is meant to accelerate their electric car retailer offers to customers. Last year, Volkswagen announced it had partnered with Tesco and Pod Point to install around 2,400 charging points for electric cars. The partnership is part of Volkswagen’s drive to boost to make electric cars more affordable for more people. This deliberately coincides with the German carmaker’s marketing of the ID.3, which has a range of up to 340 miles between charges and, as Volkswagen highlights, manufactured with carbon-neutral production. The electricity available at Tesco stores should come from renewable sources, according to Renewable Energy Magazine.

While shopping at Tesco, electric car owners are being offered 22.5 miles of free charging from the 7kW points over a 50-minute period – which was calculated as the average time required to do the weekly shop. Since the rollout started, data from Pod Point has revealed the charging points were used more than 12,000 times in November, which accounts for almost 60,000 kWh of energy.

“Volkswagen literally means the people’s car, and with the ID.3 we are making electric car ownership more accessible,” said Geraldine Ingham, Head of Marketing at Volkswagen UK. “This fantastic partnership with Tesco and Pod Point makes choosing an electric car even more attractive, allowing people to charge for free, all while going about their daily business. And the best bit is that this is not just for Volkswagens – the chargers are designed for any electric car owner to take advantage of.”

Just so electric car owners do not forget what they are being offered, Volkswagen has now created a calculator to let shoppers know how many free kilometres per year they can get by charging their electric car at Tesco.

Volkswagen dealer group Citygate has also agreed on an EV partnership with Centrica is meant to accelerate car retailer offers to customers both in-store and at home. Under the planned cooperation, Centrica will install the charging points at 10 Citygate dealerships across London and the south-east. Centrica has the role of fulfilling aftersales support on EV accessories and charging products, including home charging installations. Citygate and Centrica also intend to collaborate on the development of an EV Centre of Excellence.

renewableenergymagazine.com (Tesco), fleetpoint.org, businessgreen.com, centrica.com (Centrica)