Sainsbury's flicks switch on London electric car recharge network

Sainsbury's opened the latest front in the supermarket green arms race yesterday, with the launch of a new electric car recharging network for shoppers across London.

The company announced that it had installed electric vehicle recharging points in car parks at nine of its stores in the capital and expected to add recharge points at two further stores in Whitechapel and Wandsworth before the end of the month.

Sainsbury's said the location of new charge points in Beckton, Camden, Chiswick, Cromwell Road, East Dulwich, Greenwich Peninsula, Islington, North Cheam and Sydenham means that electric car drivers in the capital are never more than a few miles from a free recharge.

Neil Sachdev, Sainsbury's commercial director, said the move was the first step in an ambitious strategy that will see the supermarket roll out recharge points across the UK.

"More of these cars will appear on our streets as the technology improves, meaning convenient recharge points will become increasingly important," he said. "In 10 years' time, we envisage that recharge points will be available at all our stores in large cities."

The announcement was welcomed by London mayor Boris Johnson, who said that Sainsbury's new recharge points would augment his own plans to provide London with an electric car recharging network.

"I want to turn London into the electric vehicle capital of Europe," he said. "Central to this aim is the provision of charge points across the capital to ensure Londoners can go electric with the confidence that they can charge up wherever they are. I warmly welcome the arrival of Sainsbury's network of charge points which will put half of all London's population within three miles of a charge point."