Tesco has been revealed as the UK’s best supermarket for charge points in new research that indicates a huge disparity in charging provision at supermarkets.

Nearly half (45%) of Tesco’s stores have charging points under its tie-up with Volkswagen and Pod Point

The analysis of the UK’s largest supermarket chains shows nearly half (45%) of Tesco’s stores have charging points – compared to fewer than one in 10 (7.2%) of Sainsbury’s stores.

Close behind Tesco, over 40% of Morrisons stores offer customers the ability to charge, while nearly one in five (19.71%) Asda locations provide at least one place to plug in.

The research by Electrifying.com also surveyed discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi, which had hit rates of 15% and 10% respectively.

The study comes on the back of research showing that charging at supermarkets could make ownership feasible for drivers without off-street parking. A recent poll by Electrifying.com revealed 72% of drivers would feel more confident buying an electric car if there were more places to plug in at supermarkets.

As well as having the highest percentage of stores with at least one charge point, Tesco is also rated best for the average number of charge points per store, with 1.87 chargers per supermarket site. The supermarket provides free slow 7kW charging and low-cost rapid charging as part of its partnership with Volkswagen and Pod Point.

Louise Goodland, head of retail partnerships at Tesco, said: “We want to make it easy for people to switch to electric vehicles and are delighted to be recognised as the best supermarket for EV drivers in the UK.

“So far we’ve delivered over 23 million miles worth of free, green charges and we’re continuing to roll out EV chargers to 600 Tesco stores across the UK.”

Sainsbury’s said that it’s working to ensure more of its stores have charge points.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We have ambitious plans for our next generation of charging points. We want to offer charge points in more places and create a better customer experience.”

And while Waitrose currently does not have charge points, it’s already taken action to change that fast. It’s rolling out 800 new charge points in 100 locations across the UK by 2025 under its partnership with Shell – the first site will go live in 2022.