Sainsbury’s has announced the launch of an electric vehicle (EV) charging business, with plans to introduce 750 ultra-rapid charging bays in over 100 store car parks by the end of 2024.

The Smart Charge business will give drivers access to ultra-rapid EV charging points across its stores, with the supermarket saying that its 150kW Smart Charge bays will allow users to fully charge their vehicle in as little as 30 minutes.

Many of the chargers will also be capable of charging up to 300kW, if a driver’s vehicle battery can accept the higher speeds.

Citing research that the supermarket commissioned, Sainsbury’s said that the network would satisfy the 32 per cent of EV drivers who expressed frustrations at having to wait with nothing to do at public chargers.

Smart Charge bays are already available at more than 20 Sainsbury’s stores, with new charging hubs to be added to the network regularly, the supermarket said.

The charging technology and equipment is provided by Kempower.

Patrick Dunne, Sainsbury’s director of Property, Procurement & EV Ventures, said: “As EV ownership continues to grow, it’s shocking to see that an incredible three quarters of EV drivers still suffer range anxiety and many have avoided journeys as a result.

“We’re committed to helping to reduce carbon emissions and offering a national EV charging service forms part of this pledge.”

Elsewhere, BT has said that it will launch a pilot scheme that converts street cabinets traditionally used to house cabling to EV charging points. Should this come to fruition, the scheme could create a network of 60,000 new charging points.

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