![[OC] Europe: Lidl now runs more EV chargers than several entire countries](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/l9g81t8qxpwf1-790x1024.png "[OC] Europe: Lidl now runs more EV chargers than several entire countries")
While Europe is lagging behind the EU Commission’s target for e-car charging infrastructure, retail chains such as Lidl and Kaufland are driving the mobility transition forward. Lidl alone operates more charging points than Luxembourg or Ireland. Together with Kaufland, both part of the Schwarz Gruppe, they run over 11,200 charging points, making the group one of Europe’s largest charging networks.
Source: European Commission TEN-T
Full analysis: Motointegrator Study
Tools: Illustrator, Figma
Posted by DataPulse-Research
20 Comments
We’ve seen how competitive supermarkets can be over gasoline pricing, when EV adoption reaches a tipping point supermarkets will be using charge while you shop as a loss leader to get people in the door and practically every parking spot will have a charger.
There is less than 5000 charging spots in entirety of Ireland?! Wow for all wrong reasons
And supermarkets offer the perfect use case. Preferably with those mid-range 50kW-DC-chargers. Usually, leisurely weekly grocery shopping takes about an hour and in that time one can charge a an average EV easily from 20-80%. Highpowered fast chargers are to fast and expensive and 22kW a bit to slow.
Are these only publicly available chargers?
What’s really amazing is that Luxembourg (population 680,000) has more charging stations than all of Ireland (population 5 million).
Does this include all countries? If so Luxembourg are doing remarkably well to be ahead despite their population
I don’t know whether to be impressed by Luxembourg or disappointed by Ireland.
Not sure the relevance of your headline, OP. Lidl operates many of the charges in those countries, because Lidl operates in many European countries.
This is like saying McDonald’s sells more hamburgers than some entire countries. Well, ok, but it also sells a high percentage of the hamburgers in the countries it apparently outsells, and the countries it outsells cannot operate in outside markets like McDonald’s (by definition).
The data you present are meaningless. The Motointegrator study that you link is actually thoughtful and presents the data accurately — you should have just used what was there, instead of combining two unlike things.
Free market solution at its finest.
The whole reason most people I know won’t get a EV is because of the lack of charging points, so this makes it obvious to me that countries aren’t doing as much as they could be.
You could say EV charging is spreading Lidl by Lidl?
That would be nice if I could actually use them! I have set up Lidl app in my country and its not that easy like Tesla using it everywhere you go, but you have to set it up for country you are visiting, absolutely pain in the ass.. Last time I tried that, was unable to start most thanks to language was not in English.
EV chargers (near a store) are basically printing money and require very little maintenance. Meanwhile fuel distribution is endless pain on many levels with minimal profit.
Source: Chain with 2000+ chargers and hundreds of gas stations.
By the way: Lidl and Kaufland are both from the Schwarz group
To be fare, all Lidl’s combined is probably bigger than Luxembourg
Do they count ones with stolen cables?
How many of those LIDLs are in Luxembourg though?
OK, I suspect that the square footage of all Lidls in Europe exceeds the square footage of Luxembourg. If you include parking lots.
Shoutout to Luxembourg having more chargers than Ireland 🤣
except they are offline. I have 1 kaufland and 3 lidl near me and their charging stations have been offline since they were installed >6 months ago