French supermarket chains are installing more charging stations, helping the country switch to electric cars while driving down prices. Faced with soaring fuel prices and the inability to compete with TotalEnergies' prices, more supermarkets are adding charging stations to their networks to make them more competitive.
Since tensions began in the Middle East, TotalEnergies has capped its prices at €1.99 a litre for petrol and €2.25 a litre for diesel. While this has benefited customers, it has made it harder for other filling stations to compete.
Dominique Schelcher, CEO of supermarket and service station group Coopérative U, acknowledged as much in an interview this week in which he estimated that fuel sales for the company had dropped 10% since the start of the year.
In response, supermarkets including Leclerc, Lidl and Carrefour have turned towards electric chargers. Moreover, their simultaneous expansion has led to them competing with each other on prices.
This is good news for electric vehicle drivers who have seen the price per kWh drastically reduced as more supermarkets seem to have adopted the strategy of treating EV charging as a so-called ‘loss leader’, a product offered at a cut price as a way to attract more customers into the store.
Full story France supermarkets offer cheaper electric car charging in 2026
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