Dusseldorf Free charging stations in supermarket parking lots are becoming obsolete. After Aldi already charges money for charging, other retailers who have previously offered this as a free service to customers are likely to follow suit. According to industry circles, Kaufland and Lidl are now considering charging electric cars in front of their discount stores.
When asked, the Schwarz Group, to which Lidl and Kaufland belong, does not deny that it is considering introducing charging fees. A spokeswoman only said that the company “is not making any statements about future strategic decisions at this point in time”. At the same time, she emphasized that “currently” the use of the e-charging stations in the branch car parks is possible free of charge.
Lidl has already taken the first step towards a fee. Since March, the charging stations can only be used via the Lidl Plus customer card system app. Integrated into this app is the company’s own payment system, Lidl Pay, which could also be used to bill for the charging process in the future.
Lidl advises customers that charging is only permitted while they are shopping. To make misuse more difficult, the charging process is now automatically switched off after 60 minutes.
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Further tightening is possible in the short term. The spokeswoman explained: “In this context, we are intensively examining how we can further improve our offer, for example to avoid a permanent blockage of the charging stations.”
“Combination offers” instead of free charging
Jan-Oliver Heidrich, Managing Director of EHA, the central energy service provider of the Rewe Group, says: “One thing is certain, electricity cannot be given away in the long run, that is not a business model. The example of Aldi just shows that.”
Aldi Süd has recently been charging money for charging the e-car battery.
(Photo: imago images/photothek)
Aldi Süd has been charging 29 cents per kilowatt hour at standard 22-kilowatt charging stations since the beginning of June. It costs 39 cents at the fast charging stations, which make up around ten percent of the columns. Previously, charging was free for customers.
Instead of free electricity, Heidrich sees creative solutions to keep charging attractive while shopping. “I can imagine combined offers with shopping discounts or other discounts with the core business,” he said. But these are also expensive solutions.
The majority of dealers already take money to charge the e-cars anyway. A number of trading companies cooperate with the energy group EnBW, which provides the charging stations and sets the prices. EnBW does not offer free charging. In the flexible tariff, a kilowatt hour costs 45 cents, with a monthly basic fee of 5.99 euros, customers pay 36 cents. Fast charging is ten cents more expensive.
Free charging still at Ikea
EnBW cooperates with the Rewe Group, the motorway service station operator Tank & Rast, Hagebau, Bauhaus, Hellweg and dm. With a total of more than 700 quick-charging locations, the energy company says it operates “the largest quick-charging network in Germany”. A third of the stations are with retail partners.
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The Rewe Group explains that some Rewe, Penny and Toom branches have free offers for charging e-cars in addition to those that are subject to a charge. However, Rewe “cannot make any detailed statements due to our cooperative structures”. As a cooperative, Rewe has many independent merchants who operate branches. They decide for themselves whether to offer their customers electricity from the charging stations free of charge.
The fast-food chains Burger King and McDonald’s are also cooperating with charging station providers at their branches. McDonald’s states that it has equipped almost 200 locations. The fast-food chain also charges money for charging the e-car battery.
Only the Swedish furniture group Ikea still offers nationwide free charging of e-cars in Germany, without having taken steps to make it compulsory to pay. There are around 220 charging stations at Ikea branches, the group said. Customers could use these during opening hours. However, Ikea is aware “that the demand is not covered by our current offer”.
McDonald’s plans more than 1000 charging stations
Most retailers want to further expand their charging station network. Lidl and Kaufland, for example, plan to equip around a third of their branches with charging stations by March 2023. McDonald’s wants to offer charging stations at more than 1,000 locations by 2025.
Some Rewe, Penny and Toom branches also offer free charging for e-cars.
(Photo: imago images/Future Image)
The drugstore chain dm currently offers 25 charging stations across Germany, and the retailer said that 200 more are being planned or checked. At each location, three to ten e-cars are charged every day.
The Rewe Group is cooperating with Shell and EnBW to offer a network of more than 6000 charging points by the end of 2024. However, the implementation of the planned projects takes “an average of twelve months per location at the moment”.
Obstacles in expanding the charging infrastructure
This is not only the case at Rewe. When expanding the charging station networks, many retailers are reaching their limits. Heidrich, the managing director of the Rewe energy service provider, reports that the entire trade is currently in the middle of implementing the so-called Building Electromobility Infrastructure Act (GEIG). In the future, this will oblige dealers to build a certain number of charging stations in their parking lots.
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But because the realization of each project takes so long, the expansion is not progressing as hoped, explains Heidrich. Customers are therefore far from seeing everything that has already been contractually concluded and thus commissioned.
A tightening of the GEIG in order to become “more ambitious”, as politicians often say, is therefore pointless because it is simply not feasible. “There is a lack of planning capacity on the part of the grid operator, of material, transformers, civil engineering, installation companies,” complains Heidrich.
It therefore remains unclear whether retail companies will be able to meet their ambitious expansion targets. However, it is likely that free charging will increasingly become a marginal phenomenon and that the operators of the charging stations will pass the costs on to the customers.
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