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Electric charging point company Pod Point has partnered with supermarket chain Lidl.
As part of the agreement, Pod Point will be installing 53kW rapid chargers at 40 stores in order to allow customers to charge their vehicles while they shop.
These charging points should allow a Nissan Leaf EV, for example, to receive an 80% charge in half an hour, Pod Point said.
Lidl is offering rapid charges for free until further notice, while drivers will be able to locate the points using Pod Point's Open Charge mobile phone app.
"Our partnership with Lidl is an important element in the wider rollout of the Open Charge Network [Pod Point's public charging network], and a significant step towards our target of putting a Pod Point everywhere people park for an hour or more by 2020," said Erik Fairbairn, CEO of Pod Point.
As of April 2016, Pod Point's public charging network covered 2,000 points in the UK, but Fairbairn has repeatedly said there needs to be more chargers.
"We need around one million charging points around the UK to be more compatible for more people," Fairbairn told BusinessCar earlier this month. "In the UK we're starting to get to the point where it is [the use of EVs] beginning to make sense, but the fact of the matter is, we're not quite there yet."
To do this, he wants to place chargers everywhere people stop for an hour or more, such as supermarkets, hotels, cinemas and entertainment venues.
"A Pod Point available for where you'll be for an hour or so is the goal. Shopping centres are important. A large number of us use the train, so charging points are needed there too, and hotels and concert halls," he added.
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