Lidl strikes again. Starting 2027, every one of its 440 stores in the Netherlands gets supplied exclusively by electric trucks. By its own account, that makes it the first retailer worldwide with fully electric store replenishment at national scale, and they pulled the target forward by three years, from 2030 to 2027.
A discounter doesn't electrify its fleet to feel good. A discounter electrifies its fleet because diesel is a volatile cost and electrons from your own roof are a fixed one. When the cheapest supermarket in the country decides electric trucks are how you stay the cheapest supermarket in the country, the economics argument is over.
The new charging hub at the Almere distribution center includes CCS fast chargers plus a megawatt charging system (MCS) with future capacity up to 1.2 MW, the heavy-duty standard I wrote about when it was a demo in China. The distribution centers run without gas and generate a large share of their own power from tens of thousands of solar modules. Almere has a 1 MWh battery on site, demand is forecast minute-by-minute, and when Lidl's own chargers sit idle, the self-generated power gets offered to third parties, relieving the grid and helping other companies electrify their fleets.
The supermarket built solar, storage, and megawatt charging for its trucks, and in the gaps it operates as a mini energy utility for its neighbors. Distributed energy infrastructure, assembled by a grocery chain, because it makes the groceries cheaper.
Lidl sells €299 home batteries off the shelf. Lidl's parent runs its own container shipping line with eleven ships because Covid freight rates annoyed them. Lidl Netherlands has been fossil-free in logistics since 2024. Now fully electric trucking, three years early, with its own charging parks.
The most aggressive corporate electrifier in Europe is a discount supermarket, and it's doing all of it for the least romantic reason imaginable. It's cheaper.