The Epicenter group of companies plans to significantly expand its network of charging stations for electric vehicles by opening 30 new locations under the E1 brand, the group’s press service reported.

“This year we plan to open 30 new locations for charging electric vehicles in different regions of the country, giving Ukrainians the opportunity to travel with Epicenter,” noted Angelina Burlakova, director of the Electrical Engineering department at Epicenter K.

As reported, the project to install electric chargers near the retailer's shopping centers began last year. Since that time, Epicenter has already opened ten E1 locations in the parking lots of its own shopping centers in different regions of the country: Zhytomyr, Rivne, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Poltava, Uman, as well as two in Lviv and Odesa.

The results of the first stage of the project showed a high level of demand for charging station services, as the Ukrainian electric vehicle market is growing rapidly. According to the Ukrautoprom association, last year Ukrainians purchased almost three times as many electric cars as in 2022.

The company decided to intensify the development of the E1 network with an emphasis on the quality of charging equipment and ease of service. First of all, the retailer will equip parking lots of shopping centers in the western and central regions of the country with charging stations: Kyiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Lutsk, Uzhgorod, Mukachevo, Kamyanets-Podilsky, Stry and other cities. It is also planned to open charging stations in the south and east of the country (Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia), where other operators have practically suspended development due to security risks.

Along with scaling the network, Epicenter will rely on high quality equipment and service. The company has already announced the start of a partnership with the Lviv technology service GO TO-U. Thanks to this service, consumers will be able to pre-book charging connectors to effectively plan their time and avoid queues, pay for charging not only through a personal wallet in the application, but also directly with a bank card using Apple Pay and Google Pay. At the same time, Epicenter will continue to cooperate with other billing partners (Toka and EcoFactor) servicing existing E1 charging stations.