Supermarkets Fuel the Electric Boom
Good News for Those Considering an Electric Campervan – Over 1,300 Supermarkets in the UK Now Offer EV Charge Points.
Nearly 1,000 new electric vehicle (EV) charge points have been installed at supermarkets since 2020, according to Zap-Map* and the RAC. Rapid chargers at supermarkets have more than doubled in less than two years and now number in excess of 450. This takes the total number of EV charger units on their sites to 2,059, up 85% from 1,112 in January 2020.
Tesco has added more EV chargers than any other supermarket, by installing 641 devices, giving it a total of 922 across its 4,008 stores. Meanwhile Asda has 246 chargers. Morrisons now has 201 sites with EV facilities and Lidl has chargers at a quarter of its stores – 203 sites in total.
The benefits for any supermarket are obvious – while you charge your electric campervan they hope you will spend the 45 minutes or so shopping in store!
*Zap-Map is the UK’s leading EV mapping service: www.zap-map.com
They had their compact Nissan Camper conversion built to order by Sussex Campervans and collected it in August 2015. Steve asked for no stag livery, but instead embellished the sleek Twilight Grey bodywork solely with his favourite creature – a lizard.
Why a lizard? “I like climbing with lizards – it means that I’m in a warm and dry place,” says Steve with a smile. He enjoys climbing, especially calling into Fontainebleau on the way home from the Alps, an area just outside of Paris used by many Alpine mountaineers for training. There were certainly lizards climbing alongside Steve as he tackled the famous boulders in the region.
Warm, dry weather is clearly a luxury for Steve. He recalls a more typical camping trip, which really made him appreciate the shelter of the campervan: “In North Wales I was climbing on Cader Idris, which was cold, wet and miserable. I was belayed on a ledge and watched a slug beat me up the rock!”
