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VW, Tesco in Pact on Ambitious U.K. E-Car Charging Rollout

VW, Tesco in Pact on Ambitious U.K. E-Car Charging Rollout

(Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG and Tesco Plc plan to build the U.K.’s largest vehicle-charging network spanning 2,500 bays across 627 stores in the next three years, even as buyers have so far stayed on the fence and economic fallout of from Brexit is difficult to predict.

Customers will be able to charge their electric and plug-in hybrid cars using a 7-kilowatt charger for free or use the 50-kilowatt charger “at the market rate,” according to a joint statement by the world’s largest automaker and the British retail giant.

VW is “supporting the multi-million-pound initiative as part of its commitment to e-mobility,” the carmaker said. The cooperation between VW and Tesco will see the number of public charging bays in the U.K. increase by 14 percent.

VW plans to sell one million electric cars annually by 2025. That compares with the German company’s 10.7 million global deliveries last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christoph Rauwald in Frankfurt at crauwald@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Elisabeth Behrmann, Tom Lavell

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.