Walmart installed its first company-branded EV charger last year. Now, the retailer has 838 charging ports in place at a hundred stores, and construction is underway at a hundred other sites. Last month, it grew faster than any electric vehicle charging network other than Tesla’s. And by 2030, the retailer has said that it plans to have a network that extends to thousands of locations.
The expansion could have an outsized impact. Roughly 90% of Americans live within 10 minutes of a Walmart store, and the stores are adjacent to most major highways, putting the company in a unique position to help fill charging gaps throughout the country.
“We absolutely have the opportunity to serve places that may not otherwise have that infrastructure,” says Shayne Wahlmeier, senior vice president of Walmart Energy.
The work started with customers. “Customers are actively asking for EV charging, and so we thought that we could provide that in a way that feels like Walmart,” Wahlmeier says. The company had third-party charging stations in place at many stores, but it wanted to have its own equipment both so that it could control the chargers—keeping them well-maintained and in working order—and so it would feel like a part of the shopping experience, including the low prices the stores are known for.
“We want our charging to be affordable and consistent and easy to understand,” says Wahlmeier. “So not something where price changes just because you showed up on a holiday weekend.” Walmart Plus members get a 10% discount, something the retailer also offers for gas sales.
The new fast chargers are 400 kilowatt (meaning they can add hundreds of miles of range in the time it takes to shop, depending on the vehicle) with dual charging cords to accommodate different EVs. Customers can charge through Walmart’s app, though the company is also testing credit card payments.
There’s an obvious advantage for the retailer: Most customers who show up to charge are also going to shop. The company says that a typical charging session is around 30 minutes, so people often come inside. (The chargers are located a short distance from the entrance.)
EV chargers are becoming ubiquitous at other retailers, from Target and Costco to travel centers like Buc-ees. Still, Walmart can have a particularly large impact. The company has more than 4,600 Walmart stores in the U.S., and more than 600 Sam’s Club stores. And even though the country now has more than 250,000 EV charging ports, we need millions more.
“They’re in a unique position due to their proximity to so many U.S. households,” says Bill Ferro, cofounder and chief data officer of Paren, an EV charging data analytics platform. “Having a charger at your local Walmart should do a lot for expanding EV adoption as drivers see that they have a good, quality site to charge at a place that they visit anyway. Walmart can also start leveraging price as an advantage, as necessary.”
It helps that the chargers are Walmart-branded. “Except for Tesla, most charging networks are relatively and completely unknown brands to most Americans,” says Loren McDonald, CEO of Chargeonomics, another EV charging analysis firm. Everyone is familiar with Walmart, by contrast, and knows what to expect, he says.
Walmart first announced its plans in 2023, but didn’t immediately start building. “We’ve taken some time to make sure that we have the right hardware vendors and the right software integration built on our side,” says Wahlmeier, the Walmart Energy senior VP. “But we are at a scale now that we’ve got a really good pipeline in front of us and feel that we can continue to grow at the pace we are.” Each week, he says, the company is adding new sites.
The company is choosing where to roll out chargers based in part on interest from communities. “We evaluate each of our sites based on existing demand, but then also we listen closely to our store associates,” says Wahlmeier.
“We are very local and very connected to the community, and so our store managers and store associates have lots of conversations,” he adds. “I think it’s a balance. It’s as much of an art as it is science. We’re looking at data obviously to provide that information but then we’re also looking to the feedback from our local communities.”
The installations include locations in Southern California—where EV chargers aren’t hard to find—alongside charging deserts like Wetumpka, Alabama, and Checotah, Oklahoma.
Ultimately, Walmart is just one example of how EV charging is becoming part of everyday life. Other markets, including Asia and Europe, offer a glimpse of what a more mature EV market might look like, with charging integrated into the places people live, work, shop, and spend time, says Julie Taylor, chief revenue officer of Driivz, an EV charging software platform based in Israel.
“The question starts shifting from, ‘Where can I find a charger?’ to an expectation that charging will simply be available as part of the destination,” Taylor adds. “Think about Wi-Fi at a hotel. Twenty years ago, having Wi-Fi was something a hotel advertised. Today, customers simply expect it to be there.”