Sainsbury’s and the electric vehicle superhighway

This story seems like a good example of how understanding your customers can help to develop a competitive advantage. Sainsbury’s already claim that they are one of the country’s biggest users of electric vehicles, and are now encouraging their customers to follow their lead by installing vehicle recharging points for customers’ use at eleven of their London stores. They will not charge for the service, which presumably will enable customers to top up their cars for an hour or so while they do their shopping. Neil Sachdev, Sainsbury’s commercial director, said: “This will turn London into an electric vehicle superhighway, giving electric car drivers greater freedom.” According to the company’s press release, 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.

The announcement is enthusiastically supported by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, who wants 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.” Good PR for Sainsbury’s who may well have used some qualitative research into their customers’ life styles and interest in the environment to identify an opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors in the fiercely competitive grocery market.