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K Group to increase Finland’s electric car charge points by 50%

K Group intends to boost Finland’s electric car charging infrastructure by 50% by 2019. The solar power producer will install 400 charge points for electric cars and plug-in hybrids at 70 outlets of convenience chain K-Store across the country. The project will support the government's target to increase the number of electric cars in Finland to 250,000 by 2030 and to build 2,000 public charge points by 2020. Around 300 of the charge points will feature 22kW capacity while the remaining 100 will char
June 22, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
K Group intends to boost Finland’s electric car charging infrastructure by 50% by 2019. The solar power producer will install 400 charge points for electric cars and plug-in hybrids at 70 outlets of convenience chain K-Store across the country.


The project will support the government's target to increase the number of electric cars in Finland to 250,000 by 2030 and to build 2,000 public charge points by 2020.

Around 300 of the charge points will feature 22kW capacity while the remaining 100 will charge at 50kW.

The company says 88% of participants in a %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external survey false https://www.kesko.fi/en/media/news-and-releases/press-releases/2018/k-group-makes-way-for-new-forms-of-mobility-nationwide-network-of-electric-car-charging-points/ false false%> on the issue regard stores as the most logical place to charge vehicles. More than half of the 1,171 respondents said that a more comprehensive public charging network would motivate them to buy an electric car.

Initially, the charge points will be free for customers and are built in co-operation with wholesale electrical company Omninen (part of K Group) and intelligent charging firm Plugit Finland Oy.

K Group will also launch a car-sharing pilot to measure the attractiveness of using local stores as a pick-up location. The trial will be conducted in cities including Helsinki, Espoo, Turku, Tampere, Oulu, Jyväskylä and Lahti.

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