Supermarket customers will no longer be able to charge their electric cars for free while they shop as it has become too expensive for supermarkets. Customers at certain shops will receive a preferential rate.
Lidl, the pioneer behind free charging stations, has announced that it will be switching to a paying system, although the exact date of the switch is not yet known. The supermarket chain reached its 100th shop with a free charging station in 2021.
"We are going to switch to a paying system," spokesperson Isabelle Colbrandt told Het Belang van Limburg. "It is not sustainable to offer free charging, especially due to last winter's high energy prices. However, our customers will still receive a preferential rate at the paying charging stations."
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Delhaize and Ikea also plan to make their electric car charging stations paid in the future. At Colruyt and Jumbo, customers already had to pay to charge their cars.
The Belgian electric mobility sector federation, EV Belgium, stated that free charging stations are no longer affordable because of the ever-increasing number of electric cars on the roads, with the number surpassing 100,000 in Belgium in February.
