Carrefour Belgium: drastic restrictions on electric cars in supermarket car parks

The Belgian branch of Carrefour has imposed strict restrictions on parking electric cars on the upper floors of its 18 supermarkets. Let’s try to make sense of it.

The decision, currently applied by the group only in this country since mid-August, could perhaps also be introduced in France, although nothing has happened there so far.

Car parks too old for electric vehicles

This was communicated by the spokesperson for Carrefour Belgium, Damien Bytebier, who stated, in a low-key but also definitive manner, that these facilities were designed in the past for vehicles with internal combustion engines.

The fact is that electric cars weigh more on average, because of the impact of the battery pack, which can range from 300 to 600 kg.

In short, the upper levels will be reserved for cars with internal combustion engines, while electric vehicles will only be allowed to park on the ground floor.

An electric vehicle, according to data from Ademe (the French agency for ecological transition), weighs between 1,5 and 1,8 tonnes, except for particular models, compared with the 1.150 kg average weight of a petrol car.

Furthermore, although electric vehicles have a much lower fire risk than conventional cars, they require much more intensive intervention by firefighters, who must use special extinguishing techniques, again because of the lithium-ion batteries.

Belgium sets a record for e-vehicles

It is certainly a decision that will spark debate and could lead to the renovation of some outlets, built when cars were much lighter than they are today, although Carrefour warns that this is purely a precautionary measure and that there is still plenty of space for all drivers in these supermarkets.

Carrefour Belgium currently has around a thousand commercial sites: 40 hypermarkets, more than 440 Carrefour Markets, 300 Carrefour Express stores and more than 200 collection points.

It is therefore a major player in the local large-scale retail sector, with a market share of 14% approximately and a turnover that reached, in 2025, something like 4 billion euros.

In Belgium, electric cars are spreading very rapidly and, in May, they exceeded 500.000 units out of a total fleet of 6,14 million (according to data from Statbel, the equivalent of Italy’s Istat).

In Italy, according to estimates by the industry association Motus-E, at the end of July 2026 there were instead 441.453 electric cars, out of a total estimated byAciat around 41,3 million.

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.