Electric e-charging stations, a new business for Lidl

In Nîmes (Gard)

Two sachets of M

Low noise, Lidl is gradually moving forward with the installation of electric charging stations at the entrance to its stores. The distributor has just opened its sixth e-station in Nîmes (Gard) in less than a year, after a first test in Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône) last November. A new business for the brand, which until now was absent from fuel distribution - only a few supermarkets taken over from other brands have retained this service, which the German group does not manage directly.

Like all major retailers, Lidl is required by law to install electric charging stations. On the one hand, the mobility orientation law (Lom) requires that 5% of parking spaces open to the public (from 10 spaces) offer a connection; and on the other, the Alur law encourages the deployment of charging solutions since the spaces dedicated to them allow distributors to increase their number of authorized parking spaces. Thus, Lidl already has around 3,600 charging points scattered across these 805 supermarkets, around 4% of the public charging base in France. Free from 2016 to 2021, charging is now charged at 22 kW slow-charging terminals. By 2025, to comply with the law, the brand must have 9,000 to 10,000 charging points.

Lidl is considering turning this constraint into an opportunity by developing real e-stations. “We are using the codes of the gas station. Although there are three installed powers - 22 kW, 90 kW, and 180 kW - there are currently only two rates: 25 and 40 cents per kWh (the rate for individuals is 0.2 276 euro/kWh, Editor’s note). Hybrid vehicles can only charge at 22kW terminals, which is why they are not positioned in the same place,” explains Claude-Henri de Gail, e-mobility project manager at the German brand. Lidl is however launching step by step. “At this stage, e-stations are experimental projects. We are going to let them live a little to see if they are popular and if the investment is worth sustaining,” specifies the manager.

Although the investment cost is not negligible, the revenue potential is there. E-stations allow customers to refuel in thirty minutes… the time it takes to do their shopping. But, a notable difference compared to the fuel strategy of other distribution brands which generally earn only one or two cents per liter, Lidl does not intend to make its e-stations just a flagship product intended to satisfy existing customers. or attract a new one. “We are looking for profitability and want a more premium offering. Furthermore, we have completely internalized the design of our stations and developed internal expertise. It’s a new job for us that we don’t want to delegate to an intermediary,” explains Matthieu Fréchon, the national technical director of Lidl.

To date, the brand has noted “between 50% and 300% higher occupancy of e-stations compared to the charging points typically found in other supermarkets.”