Belgian location analytics firm RetailSonar has acquired German e-mobility company Ladeplan, aiming to bolster its electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure planning services across Europe. The two companies, which have both developed AI-based platforms to guide the rollout of EV charging stations, will now collaborate under one umbrella.
RetailSonar’s ChargePlanner platform is already used by over 200 clients—including Q8, McDonald’s, Jumbo, Basic Fit, and Decathlon—to identify optimal sites for EV chargers based on data such as traffic patterns, pricing, and competitive presence. Similarly, Ladeplan offers a planning tool that draws on data from more than 800 charge point operators (CPOs) and serves over 50 customers, including Audi, Die Autobahn, and Pfalzwerke.
The acquisition brings together complementary geographic strengths: RetailSonar operates widely across Europe, while Ladeplan brings deep market knowledge and a strong client base in Germany. Both firms say they have been “operating in parallel” and are now seeking to create synergies by integrating their technologies and insights.
“Each year, our clients collectively open, close or optimize more than 10,000 locations using insights from our software,” said Dieter Debels, CEO of RetailSonar. “The strength of our platform lies in the combination of intelligently gathered market data with our expertise in building highly accurate predictive models.” He noted the alignment between the two businesses: “It’s no coincidence that ‘ladeplan’ is almost a literal translation of ‘ChargePlanner’. We have been operating in parallel with the same passion and goals in mind. Now we can do this together.”
No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, but RetailSonar confirmed that existing Ladeplan clients will continue to have access to the platform.