Company news
Sainsbury’s turns London into an electric car super highway
November 5, 2009
Sainsbury's today announces the launch of a new electric car recharge network that will give drivers in London easy access to a charge point, no matter where they are in the city. The new network will be free to Sainsbury's customers.
Neil Sachdev, Sainsbury's commercial director, said: "This will turn London into an electric vehicle superhighway, giving electric car drivers greater freedom. Sainsbury's is already one of the country's largest users of these vehicles and we hope that this initiative will encourage more of our customers to follow our lead.
"Electric vehicles create less noise and help keep the city's air clean. More of these cars will appear on our streets as the technology improves, meaning convenient recharge points will become increasingly important. In ten years time, we envisage that recharge points will be available at all of our stores in large cities."
The 11 Sainsbury's stores with charge points are: Beckton; Camden; Chiswick; Cromwell Road; East Dulwich; Greenwich Peninsula; Islington; North Cheam; Sydenham; Wandsworth and Whitechapel*. The spread of sites means that drivers in central London are only ever a few miles from a recharge point.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, welcomed the announcement from Sainsbury's. He said: "I want to turn London into the electric vehicle capital of Europe. Central to this aim is the provision of charge points across the capital to ensure Londoners can go electric with the confidence that they can charge up where ever they are. I warmly welcome the arrival of Sainsbury's network of charge points which will put half of all London's population within three miles of a charge point."
Electric cars have considerable environmental benefits, offering reduced air and noise pollution and lower CO2 emissions. Almost 70% of harmful particulate emissions in London come from road transport, whereas electric cars have zero emissions when being driven. Electric vehicles result in between 25% and 50 % less CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere and reductions could increase considerably as technology improves.
Notes to editors:
* The recharge points at Whitechapel and Wandsworth will open later in November.
Enquiries:
Darragh Ooi
darragh.ooi@sainsburys.co.uk
020 7695 4651
