EXPRESS: EV Charging Availability and Grocery Store Performance

Grocery retailers are well-positioned to help address the shortage of EV charging infrastructure but seek insight on the implications for store performance. They lack clarity on the revenue impact of EV charging availability on their parking lots, the underlying mechanisms, and the conditions under which the effect is more pronounced. Drawing on a dataset of over 300 stores of a leading German grocery chain and utilizing a staggered Difference-in-Differences quasi-experimental design, the authors show that EV charging availability increases revenues by 3.4%. Market expansion alone cannot fully explain the effect as the authors find significant evidence for market stealing. They further find that the increase is due to more transactions, not to changes in basket size. The largest increase materializes during off-peak weekend hours. They identify several attitudinal (perceived impulsiveness, storability) and behavioral (penetration, purchase frequency) category characteristics that explain where the revenue increase comes from and provide insights into the role of various store (surface-to-parking ratio, management type) and market (e.g., local competition, apartment-to-house ratio, neighborhood wealth) characteristics. Guidance for store managers interested in increasing the benefits of having EV charging on their premises and chain managers supervising the roll-out throughout their store network is provided.