The rollout of electric vehicle (EV) chargers at supermarket Tesco’s sites in partnership with Pod Point and Volkswagen has hit a milestone of 500,000 charges.
The rollout – first announced in 2018 – is aiming to install 2,400 chargers at 600 supermarkets around the UK, with the 500,000th free top-up having now been provided.
The busiest of the supermarkets involved in the rollout is the Tesco Extra in Slough, with the sockets there having been used over 10,000 times. It finished ahead of Tesco supermarkets in Stourbridge, Crawley, Altrincham and Bromley by Bow, all of which made it into the top five.
Making up the remaining top ten were supermarkets in Watford, Orpington, Elmers End, Havant and Lichfield.
The 7kW chargers being rolled out are free for drivers to charge, as are the 22kW chargers where available, while the 50kW rapid chargers are available for the market rate.
Erik Fairbairn, Pod Point founder and CEO, said the new milestone is “testament to the growing appetite for EVs as well as the ease and convenience of the charging experience”.
The rollout hit a separate milestone in July 2020, with chargers having been installed at 200 Tesco stores, taking the number of chargers installed as part of the rollout to 402.
This came several months after it was announced that Triodos Bank had provided a debt facility to Pod Point to support the rollout.