Does DC charging at supermarkets really work?

or, which type of supermarket charging is the best solution?

What’s the best use for supermarket charging in the UK - AC or rapid DC?

Stephanie Smits O'Callaghan from EV charging company Hikotron in New Zealand recently posted something on Linked In which posited that AC charging at supermarkets was the best solution¹. That post received lots of comments - both positive and negative.

But what it did indicate to me is that many people don’t seem to know or understand what the use cases are for different supermarket charging options. So I want to go through what’s currently out there in the UK as well as look at where the different options will, and won’t, work

What’s the history?

Different supermarket chains have engaged different CPOs to put in different charging solutions over the years, with varying levels of success.

Tesco went for Podpoint AC charging and - anecdotally - this backfired when they started charging for it. Lidl went for 50kW DC charging - which seemed to be a bit better but fell in between 2 different dwell times. Same for Morrisons and Geniepoint.

Sainsbury went for Kempower Ultra Rapid charging at a price of 75p/kWh. By their own data they are getting 1 in 4 EVs visiting their sites using their chargers. That certainly doesn’t match the anecdotal data I’ve seen when passing Sainsbury charging locations. A cursory glance at Zapmap indicates that the vast majority of Sainsbury’s chargers sit unused with only a handful showing more than 1 or 2 units occupied at 10:15 on a Monday. But that’s the issue with anecdotal data - it is anecdotal, not empirical. I’m sure Richard Hackforth-Jones from Sainsbury has much better empirical data than that.

But, at the end of the day, the reality comes down to a very simple trade-off: what your specific use case for supermarket charging is as an EV driver vs. what the supermarkets can provide. In some cases, this matches and supermarket charging is appropriate. In others, it doesn’t and it isn’t.