Engie Vianeo to build charging parks at 12 shopping centres

The French retail network operator Engie Vianeo has announced a partnership with shopping centre company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW). The partnership will see twelve URW shopping centres in France equipped with EV charging parks this year.

Eight of these shopping centres are located in the Île-de-France region and therefore in the greater Paris area. There are also two locations in Lyon and one each in Dijon and Rennes. A total of 134 ultra-fast charging points with up to 400kW output and 242 fast charging points with up to 50kW output are planned for the sites. That’s a total of 376 charging points at outdoor car parks and multi-storey garages, depending on location. While the manufacturer of the charging points remains unknown, Engie Vianeo has in the past used charging stations from the likes of Alpitronic and Siemens.

Founded in 2023, Engie Vianeo is a subsidiary of the French energy group Engie. It specialises in charging solutions for EVs, and has the aim of rapidly building a charging network with a five-digit number of charging points. So, these 376 charging points at twelve shopping centres will make a significant contribution to this goal.

Installation of the chargers is set to begin this summer, with the goal of opening to the public in September 2025. The companies have justified the use of charging stations with varying speeds by saying they are considering two different shopping scenarios: those who want to make a quick purchase can recharge their vehicle in just 20-30 minutes at an ultra-fast charger, or if they want to spend longer at the shopping centre, they can leave their EV plugged in at one of the fast chargers for around 90 minutes.

Didier Liautaud, MD of Engie Vianeo in France, said: “URW and Engie have been working on projects to promote low-carbon energy solutions in Europe for more than six years. Extending this partnership to electric mobility will help democratize electric vehicle driving thanks to Engie Vianeo’s charging stations in URW’s premium shopping centers.”

Bruno Donjon de Saint Martin, Managing Director of URW Southern Europe, adds: “The development of sustainable mobility actions is at the heart of our Better Places roadmap. I am very proud of this partnership with Engie, which will enable us to offer an additional, high-quality service to our customers and, by facilitating the use of electric vehicles, help us achieve our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from visitor transportation by 40 percent by 2030.”

engie-vianeo.com (translated from French)