Waitrose is to become the first supermarket in the UK to trial new wireless charging tech for electric vehicles, putting the business at the forefront of green home deliveries.

The technology will enable the vehicle’s electric range to be topped up simply by parking above an electric plate

The technology will be installed on vans delivering groceries from its St Katherine’s Dock store and will enable the vehicle charge to be topped up simply by parking above an electric plate, exactly like flat charging plates for mobile phones. The vehicles can also be plugged in to charge overnight.

The wireless charging tech is being installed by EV technology specialist Flexible Power Systems (FPS), which also equips the store with a cloud-based smart charging system designed for home delivery, and the trial will start in the new year.

The work builds on a deployment with City of Edinburgh Council and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, and comes on the back of Waitrose’s plans to end the use of fossil fuels across its entire transport fleet by 2030. By 2030, Waitrose will have electrified all cars, vans and light trucks, and for sectors where that is not currently possible, such as long-distance heavy trucks, biomethane will be used.

Marija Rompani, director of ethics & sustainability at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Before the pandemic, we were taking 60,000 orders a week – we’re now doing well over 200,000 orders. That uplift in demand for grocery deliveries means that prioritising an electric fleet is more important than ever, particularly as world leaders meet at COP26 to discuss how we lower global emissions.”

She continued: “Being the first to trial this new wireless charging technology is both exciting and another example of our ambition to show leadership in this space.”

The trial follows a two-year programme by Waitrose and FPS that explored large-scale simulations of EV fleet implementations to understand the impact of different vehicle choices and charger configurations.

“That work has revealed that one size doesn’t fit all in fleet electrification projects and that a range of operational, site and vehicle requirements need to be balanced to arrive at effective strategies,” said FPS managing director Michael Ayres.

The software tools developed during that programme will form the basis of the system being implemented at St Katherine’s Dock, which differs from conventional smart charging systems by being integrated into building energy monitoring and operational software systems.

Ayres continued: “This project is about testing technologies that can save time and cost, particularly wireless charging, which has the potential to save time spent charging between deliveries to make the process more efficient and convenient for customers, as well as retailers.”