Lidl vs McDonald's vs the Autobahn: where are the best EV charging locations?

Everyone has opinions about where EV chargers should go. We have data.

We took three of Germany's most recognisable location networks — Lidl supermarkets, McDonald's restaurants, and Autobahn service areas — and scored them for EV fast-charging potential using our ML-based location scoring model. Not a sample. The full set: 3193 Lidl stores, 1343 McDonald's, and 802 Autobahn service areas.

The model evaluates every site on 20 features across traffic, amenities, and existing charger density, then outputs a single number: the location score. Higher means more potential for a DC fast charger. For the methodology, see Location score: the number that predicts CPO success.

The headline numbers

McDonald's leads at 2.558, followed by Lidl at 2.318 and Autobahn service areas at 2.109. The red dashed line marks the average for DC charging stations already deployed in Germany (2.52). That number is high for a reason: it reflects thousands of individual investment decisions by CPOs who actively chose where to put their hardware. Germany's existing DC network is, on the whole, well placed — operators have been good at cherry-picking locations.

47.3% of McDonald's and 34.6% of Lidl locations already meet or exceed the DC station average — without anyone having optimised them for charging. For Autobahn service areas, it's 26.2%.

Portfolio quality: who has the most duds?

Averages hide the spread. The bucket distribution reveals which brand has the tightest quality floor — and which has the longest tail of weak locations.

McDonald's has the tightest distribution: 49.4% of locations land in the "Good" range (1.5–2.5), and only 0.0% score below 0.8. Just 0 out of 1343 restaurants score "Poor". Their site selection is remarkably consistent — busy arterial roads, visible from the highway, surrounded by commercial activity.

Lidl has the highest ceiling. 35.8% of stores score "Excellent" — that's 1143 locations above 2.5. But they also have 9 stores (0.3%) in the "Poor" bucket. That's the spread between a Lidl in a busy suburban retail park and a Lidl in a small rural town.

Autobahn service areas are the most bottom-heavy. Only 27.7% hit "Excellent" — the lowest of the three — while 17.0% sit in the "Below average" range. Pure highway locations score well on traffic but poorly on surrounding amenities.

What drives each brand's score

The location score draws on 20 features grouped into three categories: traffic (road volume), amenities (nearby shops, restaurants, fuel stations), and competition (existing DC chargers). The SHAP breakdown shows how much each category pushes a brand's average score up or down.

Competition is the largest positive contributor for all three — not because competition helps, but because dense charger coverage correlates with high-demand areas. It's a proxy signal: where chargers already exist, demand already exists.

The real divergence is in traffic vs amenities. Autobahn service areas get by far the strongest boost from traffic — they sit on Germany's busiest roads with an average traffic score of 18913, nearly triple Lidl's 5977. But their amenity contribution is 0.0448. A motorway rest stop might have fuel and a Burger King, but the model counts just 158 total POIs within 1 km versus 932 for McDonald's.

McDonald's gets the best of both worlds: solid traffic (arterial roads, highway-adjacent) and dense amenity clusters. Their locations average 43 food POIs and 10 retail POIs within 1 km. They are the amenity — and they're surrounded by more.

Lidl occupies the middle ground. Lower traffic than both competitors (suburban locations, not arterial roads) but strong amenity density. Lidl stores cluster with other retail — the Aldi across the street, a DM next door, a bakery on the corner. That retail cluster effect pushes their amenity SHAP contribution to 0.1553 — the highest of the three.

Most of these locations already have chargers nearby

This doesn't mean there's no room for more chargers. It means the land-grab phase is over. New deployments at these locations compete with existing infrastructure — which shifts the business case from "build it and they will come" to "build it better and they will switch."

For Lidl, this competition is already playing out. They've been rolling out chargers at German stores, typically 150 kW+ DC fast chargers. The pitch: charge while you shop. A 20–30 minute grocery run maps perfectly to a fast-charging session. That's a dwell-time advantage no Autobahn rest stop can match.

Autobahn service areas have a different structural advantage: they're the only option for long-distance drivers who need a mid-journey charge. Competition metrics matter less when the alternative is a 15 km detour off the motorway.

Three strategies, three profiles

For CPOs evaluating co-location partnerships, McDonald's offers the most reliably high-quality sites. Lidl's top quartile is hard to beat — and comes with built-in dwell time. Autobahn service areas offer something neither can: guaranteed highway corridor coverage.

Destination charging? Lidl. En-route charging? Autobahn. High-frequency urban fast charging? McDonald's.

Score your own locations

This analysis used our location scoring model, available to all Chargalytics subscribers. Score any coordinate in Europe, see the full SHAP breakdown, and benchmark your portfolio against the market.

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