On Thursday local time, US retail giant Walmart announced plans to set up electric vehicle fast charging stations in all Walmart and Sam’s Club stores across the United States, and aims to achieve full coverage of electric vehicle fast charging stations for all stores in the United States by 2030.
Previously, Walmart joined the Electrify America project under Volkswagen, which is currently one of the largest open public electric vehicle charging networks in the United States. As of now, Walmart has deployed nearly 1,300 fast charging stations throughout the United States.
Walmart has over 5,000 brand stores and Sam’s Club stores in the United States. According to statistics, about 90% of Americans live within 10 miles (approximately 16 kilometers) of these stores.
Vishal Kapadia, Walmart’s newly appointed Senior Vice President of Energy Transformation, said in an interview: “We have the ability to solve the range and charging anxiety of electric vehicles, which other American companies cannot match.”
Currently, the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging in the United States is developing rapidly, but people are generally concerned about the running time, performance, convenience, and high cost of charging stations.
Kapadia said that Walmart chose to build its own charging stations instead of cooperating with other operators, which will help solve reliability and cost issues.
Kapadia expects that the new charging stations will install DC fast charging stations, and an average of about 4 charging stations will be deployed per store.
Walmart refused to comment on financial details and said it is looking for relevant suppliers.
Currently, there are about 30,000 fast charging stations in the United States that can fully charge electric vehicles in an hour or less. Some of the high-power fast charging stations even cost over $100,000.
Although there are still not many electric vehicles on the roads in the United States, this situation is changing as oil prices remain high, subsidies for electric vehicles increase, and new electric vehicles with lower prices are launched.
Market consulting company AutoForecast Solutions predicts that electric vehicles will account for about one-third of the North American market by 2029.
The US president previously promised to establish a network of 500,000 public charging stations by 2030. In February of this year, the White House announced a new federal subsidy regulation totaling $7.5 billion, aimed at promoting the development of the electric vehicle industry and infrastructure construction, including the construction of charging stations along US highways.
Kapadia said that Walmart will soon launch the charging station project and consider applying for federal subsidy funds later.
It is estimated that about 240 million consumers visit Walmart stores every week. These newly installed charging stations will also provide Walmart with more data on how shoppers pay or how long they stay in specific stores.
