Tesco Ireland, in partnership with ESB, has announced the rollout of dual-outlet electric vehicle chargers at 52 of its store carparks spanning 18 counties nationwide.

The installation of the 22kW chargers will commence in early 2020 with completion expected by autumn. The dual chargers will facilitate charging two electric vehicles simultaneously. The 52 sites will be included on ESB’s nationwide charge point map to help customers find their closest charging point and allow customers to start and stop transactions using the ESB app.

“At Tesco, we recognise that a growing number of our customers who visit our stores are using electric vehicles,” said Kari Daniels, CEO, Tesco Ireland. “With all our electricity already coming from renewable sources across our network, we want to support our customers with convenience-based charging. Partnering with ESB installing these charging sites nationwide will help the government’s Climate Action Plan and our aim as a business to become a zero-carbon retailer by 2050.”

Just earlier this month in the UK, Tesco announced that EV owners would be able to top up their battery for free while shopping at 100 Tesco stores across the country. A year ago, Volkswagen announced plans to install more than 2,400 charging stations at Tesco locations, while Engenie promised to install 400 fast-charging stations at Marston’s pubs.

On Irish roads, there are currently over 15,000 electric vehicles. Ireland has seen an increase of 142% in electric vehicle ownership on 2018 figures.

techcentral.ie, esb.ie