Sainsbury’s has launched the first electric vehicle (EV) charging service in the UK which allows customers to collect loyalty points.

The supermarket said shoppers using Smart Charge will be able to collect one Nectar point for every pound they spend on charging their vehicle.

Additionally, Sainsbury’s announced the opening of a new Smart Charge location, with 12 new bays available at the supermarket’s London Enfield store.

Smart Charge is an ultra-rapid EV charging network fully owned and managed by Sainsbury’s. It has over 400 charging bays and is fully powered with renewable energy.

The retailer says that it has sold around 65,000 hours of charging to date.

The service intends to help advance the uptake of electric vehicles by making access to charging on the go more accessible.

“Today marks a huge milestone for our Smart Charge business as we become the first EV charging provider to offer customers loyalty benefits from a UK leading loyalty programme, Nectar,” said Patrick Dunne, Sainsbury’s director of property, procurement & EV ventures. “With bays in more locations than ever before, and Sainsbury’s stores conveniently placed far and wide, it has never been easier for EV drivers across the UK to access ultra-rapid facilities, and now they can reap the benefit of Nectar points too.”

In February, Sainsbury’s opened a flagship store in Talbot Green in Wales offering an ultra-rapid charging service for EV users.

The store offers six 150kW+ charging bays, which take around 30 minutes to provide enough power for EV users to travel up to 200 miles.

The new store is Sainsbury’s second location in Wales to offer the smart charging service and the thirtieth in the UK so far.

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