UK Edition
The billionaire Issa brothers have switched off more than a hundred electric car charging points across Asda stores in a blow to customers who want to plug in their vehicles while they shop.
New figures from the RAC reveal that Asda has slashed the number of electric vehicle chargers at its supermarkets by more than two thirds to just 46 devices over the past year. It had 165 devices at the start of 2023.
The reduction comes after the supermarket ended a partnership with electric vehicle (EV) charging company BP Pulse. Asda now has working EV chargers on just 2pc of its estates, or 22 shops.
Asda is the only supermarket to have slashed the number of active charging points it has, with others including Tesco and Morrisons investing heavily in the technology.
It comes as Asda struggles under the weight of billions of pounds of debts following its takeover by Mohsin and Zuber Issa and their private equity partners TDR Capital in 2021.
The Issa brothers also own petrol station empire EG Group, which late last year struck a deal with Tesla to roll out chargers across its petrol station sites in the UK and Europe.
Asda struck a deal to buy the UK forecourts of EG Group last year. However, it is understood that the Tesla deal will not apply to Asda car parks.
The supermarket is understood to be currently considering its options for replacing the EV chargers it has lost.
Most supermarkets have been rapidly increasing the number of EV chargers they have in their car parks in a bid to lure more drivers to come and shop with them.
Simon Roberts, Sainsburys chief executive, last month unveiled plans to spend £70m to add charging points in 70 more supermarkets after success at 27 sites.
He said at the time: “I want to come and shop, spend 30 minutes in the store, I can follow the charge on my phone as I’m going around the shop, and I can come back to my car being charged.”
Tesco increased the number of chargers across its estate by 61pc to 1,305 last year, according to Zapmap figures compiled by RAC. Morrisons more than doubled the number of chargers across its stores to 413.
Overall, 1,195 new charging devices were installed across the supermarket sector. Many were faster-charging devices.
RAC EV spokesman Simon Williams said: “Concerns about the lack of public charge points are one of the biggest reasons why drivers aren’t choosing to go electric when buying their next car, with six-in-10 telling us this.
“It’s very encouraging to see supermarkets doing their best to allay these fears by ramping up EV charging facilities across a greater proportion of their estates.”
The loss of EV chargers at Asda stores will fuel concerns over whether the supermarket will be able to lure customers back. Figures from Kantar earlier this month revealed that the grocer was lagging all its major rivals on sales growth.