Vauxhall offers new customers a year’s free charging at Tesco stores

Vauxhall is offering a year’s free public charging to new customers as part of a deal with supermarket chain Tesco.

Under the new partnership, anyone buying a new electric model from Vauxhall – including the Corsa, Astra and Mokka – will get up to 5,900 miles of free charging credit at Tesco chargers across the UK.

Tesco has more than 2,700 Pod Point charging bays at 619 stores around the country offering charging rates of between 7kW and 75kW. Last year, they provided 3.8 million charging sessions to shoppers. As part of the deal, they will be rebranded to carry Vauhall and Tesco branding. While new Vauxhall owners will be able to use them for free, they will still be available to the owners of any make or model of EV.

James Taylor, managing director of Vauxhall, said: “As electric vehicle sales continue to grow, access to practical charging continues to be a hot topic to ensure the UK can continue along its electrification journey, whether at home, on-street or at a required destination.

“We’re committed to electrifying Britain and helping UK motorists to make the switch to electric. We are excited to begin working with Tesco and look forward to seeing the UK’s charging network grow, allowing even more convenient charging solutions for drivers to make their day-to-day journeys.”

Clare Gregorio, head of retail partnerships at Tesco, said: “We’re committed to reducing carbon emissions across our business, including becoming carbon neutral across our own operations by 2035. We want to encourage our customers to make sustainable choices too, such as moving to electric vehicles.

“That’s why we’re delighted to partner with Vauxhall in providing the UK’s largest supermarket EV charging network, making it easy and convenient for our customers to top up their electric cars while they shop with us.”

Vauxhall’s partnership with Tesco comes as part of its Electric Streets of Britain initiative. This scheme was introduced to address the lack of on-street charging provision in the UK, after research by Vauxhall found that in 2023 more than 70% of UK councils surveyed did not have a published strategy in place for residential on-street charging, and 69% had yet to install any on-street chargers.

Through Electric Streets of Britain, Vauxhall has created a register where drivers can log their interest in having an on-street charger near them. This information is then being shared with local authorities to pinpoint the best locations for investment in charging infrastructure.