How EV Charger Growth is Devaluing  Location Portfolios

With EV charger installations accelerating across the UK, location portfolio owners may find the value of their key sites being quietly eroded. In just three months, over a third of one major chain’s locations saw nearby charger growth. Junaid Muneer explores the data, and what can be done to protect a site’s value before it slips away.

Recently, we’ve been conducting some analysis into location portfolios for organizations that own collections of properties, like hotels and restaurant chains, and are seeing the potential for EV charging at their locations.

What we are finding is that the opportunity for these companies to capitalize on the opportunity for EV charging is diminishing; there is a need to move quickly, and in this article, I step through an example using a well-known fast food chain.

In this article, I break down the numbers, map the changes, and give you one very clear message: if you're not already moving, you're falling behind.

It’s getting crowded

We took a close look at 1,430 fast-food locations between February and April 2025. During that time, over 500 locations saw new EV chargers pop up within a range of just 2 kilometers. That’s 36% of this entire fast-food chain’s network impacted.

In just over three months , more than a third of this fast-food chain’s UK locations found themselves surrounded by a sudden spike in public EV chargers. And no, this wasn’t some random coincidence. It was fast, focused, and aimed straight at high-traffic commercial hotspots.

You might think that the deployment of one or more new EV charge points in the vicinity of your business is a good thing, and yes, it could be, EV chargers do bring economic activity, but, it’s no guarantee. If the charger is not on your turf, then the foot traffic it drives will likely not come through your doors.  

Plus, with a charge point in your immediate area, the opportunity to not only bring people to your doorstep and benefit from their custom, but also to profit from the charger itself, is lost. 
Every new charger that’s not on your own site could be a powerful force in redirecting customers away from you.

A shifting landscape

Once mapped out, the visuals tell a compelling story.

Starting with a snapshot of 1,430 of this fast-food business’s central UK locations (shown in green), we tracked the data each month from February 2025 until April 2025, each subsequent snapshot showing the locations which have since been affected by an EV charge point installation (shown in red).

1. Shows all the restaurant locations
2. February 2025: Everything looked calm. All 1,430 sites are green. No charger growth yet.
3. March 2025: A splash of red — some locations now find themselves near to new EV chargers.
4. April 2025: The red areas increase dramatically. What started as a trickle is now a wave.

With each month, more green turns red. More portfolio locations lose their competitive edge, and more consumers are encouraged away from these business locations.

Let’s break it down: 

That’s an average of over 14% of locations impacted each month. If EV charger deployment continues at a similar rate, over half the fast-food chain’s location portfolio will likely be adversely affected within six months.

The big takeaway: Standing still is risky business

Your location portfolio might look the same, but its strategic value could already be slipping away. And once it is gone, it is hard to get back.

EV chargers don’t just power vehicles and create a revenue stream for their operators, they drive people. Nearby competitors are capturing EV driver traffic and the associated spending. Charging creates dwell time, and dwell time turns into real spend - on food, coffee, and retail - but only if your site is set up to make it easy and appealing to do so.

But the real kicker is that you won’t see the damage on the map until it is too late.  Without actively moving to bring EV charging to your sites, you are quietly losing ground to competitors who are targeting the same high-footfall, high-potential sites you depend on.

What you can do, before it is too late

If you own or manage a portfolio of sites, there is still time to take control.

We’ve got the data, tools, and team to help you protect and grow the value of your portfolio in the EV age.

Here’s how we can help:

• Quickly identify the most valuable sites in your portfolio
• Prioritize site rollout based on multiple factors important to your business, including revenue potential, feasibility, and competitive dynamics
• Streamline large-scale deployments so you can move from plan to reality quicker

Let’s talk. Your future success depends on the steps you take today.