Tesco reaches 600 stores with EV charging points

The retailer’s Kirkwall store has been equipped with e-mobility solutions to boost energy transition across the United Kingdom.

Tesco’s Kirkwall store has become the 600th location in the United Kingdom to have electric vehicle charging points installed. 

Since the retailer launched the network alongside Volkswagen and Pod Point in 2019, the charging points have provided 43,218kWh of energy to date - enough to power more than 4,000 homes for a whole day. The installation at the store on the remote Scottish island of Orkney is the culmination of a programme which has seen more than 2,500 EV charging bays installed at 600 stores across the region over the last three years.

The partnership was announced to improve the charging infrastructure as the UK prepares for an electric future. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, at the end of February 2023 there were 693,307 battery-electric cars in the UK, an increase of 610 per cent on the number of BEVs in 2019.

“From Orkney all the way to Southampton, we’re helping customers to make sustainable choices by giving them somewhere easy and convenient to charge while they shop with us. Hitting our target of 600 stores with EV charging is a great milestone – and our work doesn’t stop there, as we’re now installing our first 75kW rapid chargers too,” said Jason Tarry, CEO at Tesco UK.

Tesco’s chargers have been used more than 6,000,000 times already saving more than 24,000 tonnes of CO2.