Pod Point expands EV charge point program at UK supermarket

London — Pod Point has increased its Tesco electric vehicle charge point program from 400 to 600 stores in the UK, the EV charger said Tuesday.

The EDF subsidiary had previously partnered with Tesco and Volkswagen to provide free charging across 400 supermarkets, and with Lidl to provide rapid charging at 50 stores for 23 pence per kWh.

Now, with new financing from Triodos Bank plus funding from Tesco and Volkswagen, some 600 Tesco stores are to have 7 kW free-to-use chargers, while some sites will also have 50 kW rapid chargers "priced in line with market rates."

Pod Point CEO Erik Fairbairn said the company was rolling out charge points "at a scale that is going to accelerate EV adoption in ways we haven't seen before."

Philip Bazin, head of the environment team at Triodos Bank UK, said: the UK transport sector "now has the highest greenhouse gas emissions of any industry in the UK, with passenger car road transport accounting for over 50% of these emissions."

In February EDF bought a majority stake in Pod Point for an undisclosed sum, entering into a joint venture with financial services group Legal and General.

The deal follows EDF's acquisition of Pivot Power last year, which specializes in grid-scale batteries and provides high voltage power infrastructure required for rapid EV charge-points.

Pod Point has shipped over 78,000 EV chargers to date, the majority 3.6 kW-to-7 kW home units.

It has almost 3,000 charging bays across the UK, including in Tesco and Lidl supermarket car parks, at Center Parcs and sites across Legal & General's property portfolio.

"The additional electricity demand from EVs will require urgent investment in low carbon generation from renewables and nuclear," said Simone Rossi, UK CEO of EDF.

EDF said a low carbon grid twinned with 32 million EVs on UK roads (ie 100% replacement of the current fleet) would avoid 65 million mt of CO2, shrinking Britain's carbon footprint by over 10%.