How EV charging operators pick the next sites for their chargers

A charging operator picks its next sites by ranking candidate hosts (supermarkets, hotels, retail parks, car parks) on three tests: do drivers already stop there long enough to charge, how many fast chargers are already within a few minutes, and how many people live or spend time nearby. A supermarket with a big car park, no fast charger within 2 km and a dense neighbourhood around it beats a busier site that already has three rapid hubs on its doorstep. Grid capacity and the landlord's terms come after; the ranking tells the team which landlords to call first.

This article is for site acquisition and network planning teams at charging operators, and for the energy companies, retailers and hotel groups that host chargers. It covers what to measure, how to read a register of chargers honestly, a worked example, common mistakes and an AI employee that keeps the shortlist fresh.

The three tests for a host site

• Dwell. Drivers need somewhere to be while they charge. Nearby places finds candidate hosts by type, and its average stay field, when known, says how long people stay. A supermarket or a cinema beats a petrol forecourt for a 22 kW charger; a motorway service area suits a 150 kW one.
• Existing chargers. The EV charging block reads the public charging-station register around each candidate: how many stations and charge points are within a distance, how many are fast (50 kW or more), the highest power, the nearest one and the main operators.
• People nearby. Demographics counts residents within a distance, in the countries it covers, among them France, Canada, India, Thailand and Australia; Mobility Footfall shows how busy the area is, which matters most where few people live but many come to shop or work.

How to read a charging register

The public register is built from operators' and drivers' reports, so its coverage varies by country and city. Some operators list every charger; others list few. The EV charging block says when a city area looks thin on chargers in the register, so a zero is checked before it becomes a site plan.

Read fast and slow chargers separately. An area full of 7 kW posts on residential streets may still have no fast charging at all, and the driver who needs 80 per cent in 30 minutes does not care how many slow posts there are.

Hosts in three cities

Supermarkets are the most common host for destination charging. The number of possible hosts varies hugely. xMap's places database lists 1,332 supermarkets within 10 km of the centre of London, 190 in the same circle around Sydney and 82 around Toronto (November 2026). Of the 437 nearest London's centre, 296 belong to a chain; in Sydney 75 of 190 do; in Toronto 28 of 82.

1,332Supermarkets, London

190Supermarkets, Sydney

82Supermarkets, Toronto

The chain share matters to an operator: a deal with one grocery chain can open dozens of sites at once, while independents are signed one by one.

A worked example

Here is a made-up example. An operator wants ten new fast-charging sites in and around Lyon. It searches the area for supermarkets, retail parks, cinemas and hotels, about 300 candidates. For each, it counts fast chargers within 2 km, residents within a 10-minute drive, and footfall per day around the car park.

1. Nearby places lists the candidate hosts in the area, with chain, rating and average stay.
2. EV charging adds, for each candidate, the fast stations within 2 km and the nearest one's distance.
3. Filter keeps candidates with no fast station within 1 km.
4. Travel area draws a 10-minute drive around each, and Demographics counts the residents inside.
5. A Calculated field works out residents per fast charger in that area, and Sort and limit keeps the top 30.

In this made-up result, 18 of the top 30 belong to two supermarket chains. The site team calls those two first, with a list of exactly which stores, and leaves the independents for the next round.

Mistakes to avoid

• Counting all chargers as one. Split by power. Slow posts do not meet the need a fast hub serves.
• Trusting a gap on the map without checking the register's coverage. A thin register can make a well-served area look empty.
• Ranking by traffic past the site alone. Live Traffic Flow gives speeds and congestion, not the number of cars, and a busy road without a reason to stop does not fill chargers.
• Ignoring what rivals open. Check for new stations near your shortlist every month, not just once.

Doing it with an AI employee

Run the ranking as a monthly AI employee and the shortlist keeps up with the market. The blocks in order: Schedule, Area of interest (the cities or regions), Nearby places (host types), EV charging (counts around each host), Filter, Travel area, Demographics, Calculated field, Sort and limit, an xMap LLM block that writes why each site ranks where it does, and Email with a map. Each month the inbox gets the top sites, those that dropped because a rival station opened nearby, and the new candidates.

Ready-made: Fast charger sites where drivers already stop, Busy shopping places with the fewest EV chargers, Hotels for destination EV chargers and Charging network report for my cities.