It’s no secret that Walmart has been quietly working on its own electric vehicle charging network. The company announced as much over a year ago. However, since then, it has been tight-lipped about how it would go about doing so—until now.
I secured an exclusive interview with Adam Happel, Walmart’s General Manager of Retail EV Charging, as the company agreed to talk in detail about the Walmart EV charging network plans for the first time.
After my 20-minute interview with Happel, it’s clear to me that Walmart plans to do what Walmart always does, and that’s offer its customers a better overall shopping experience than competitors, including cost, convenience, and value. After all, Walmart didn’t become the largest retailer in the world by accident.
Happel explained that the retailer intends to install Walmart EV charging stations at “thousands of its locations by 2030” and continue installing more in the next decade. He didn’t offer any specific number of stalls per location, only that “each site stall count will depend on market conditions”. Happel said they will take into consideration the number of EVs in each specific market as well as how many other networks operate nearby.
If there aren’t any other EV charging stations in the area, Walmart will install more charging stalls than if there are other fast charging options. He also explained that Walmart will monitor utilization, and the sites will be designed to easily add more chargers when needed to prevent customer queuing.
After testing charging equipment from various vendors, Walmart has selected Alpitronic and ABB as suppliers for its initial sites, although I was told it is brand-agnostic. Customers use the Walmart app to initiate and pay for charging, and the process will be the same regardless of the brand of charger at the site.
I also asked Happel what happens to the chargers that are on the other networks that currently operate on Walmart properties. Electrify America, for instance, has many of its sites on Walmart grounds. Happel said that Walmart’s partners have been great to date, and as they continue to grow the Walmart network, they will reassess how they move forward with their partners.
Photo by: EV Charging Stations
I visited Walmart’s first official network site (there are currently two other sites—one in Texas and the other in Arkansas, but they are pilot test sites) in McKinney, Texas, to test out the network and charged a rented GMC Hummer EV on a 400 kW Alpitronic charger. That site has four chargers that serve eight charging bays. Each charger has one NACS and one CCS1 connector and can charge two EVs at once, dynamically splitting the 400 kW and offering each cable up to 600 amps. Unfortunately for Nissan LEAF owners, there will not be CHAdeMO connectors at any of the locations.
The Hummer took in over 300 kW for a while, and I charged from 1% to 53% in 27 minutes, and the charger dispensed 100 kWh of electricity. I was billed $42.00 as this site is currently set to charge $0.42 per kWh. Happel told me Walmart won’t have consistent pricing throughout the network. Instead, it will do as most other EV charging networks do, which is adjust pricing from site to site depending on local electricity rates. Happel also indicated that Walmart Plus customers may get a discount on charging, just like they do on other goods and services offered by the company.
Walmart currently operates over 4,600 stores and over 600 Sam’s Clubs in the United States, giving it over 5,200 potential locations. In fact, over 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of one of its stores, and the remaining <10% live mostly in extreme rural areas where electric vehicle adoption is currently very low.
That fact is important because one of the biggest challenges EV charging networks face is securing locations. Until now, every EV charging network has had to search for potential locations, contact the property owner, and attempt to negotiate a long-term lease deal for dedicated parking spaces to install its chargers and power cabinets. The new Ionna network is a slight exception because it is purchasing the properties for some of its locations, which are typically abandoned gas stations, which we love to see.
Walmart owns most of the real estate where the stores sit, so it doesn’t need to find locations or ask anyone for permission. Plus, as utilization increases, it can simply add more chargers to accommodate more EV throughput without an issue. No other network can do that.
Another challenge facing EV charging networks is the extraordinary capital needed for each site. The cost of a single 10-stall 350 kW DC fast charging site can cost $300,000 to over $500,000 in some cases. Walmart’s 2025 revenue is projected to be over $700 billion, so allocating whatever funds are necessary to build a comprehensive nationwide network isn’t a question of can they, it’s will they.
Additionally, since its retail stores are on-site, so are its employees. So if an EV charging customer needs help, a trained Walmart employee will be there to assist during business hours, which typically range from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm.
Photo by: EV Charging Stations
I believe having chargers on your property with employees on hand may also help reduce a problem that many networks struggle with: identifying and repairing broken chargers. You can be sure that as soon as a charger goes offline or a connector is damaged, customers will be very quick to walk into the store and report it to management. The way broken charger reporting is done with all of the other networks is by leaving a comment through the app.
Confronting a Walmart manager in person and complaining about broken chargers will most likely have a much deeper impact than a remote customer service representative reading a comment left the night before from a user who’s 500 miles away. The manager will be personally involved and incentivized to repair it quickly. After all, they won’t want to see that same person a week later asking them why it’s still broken.
Make no mistake about it, the Walmart charging network has the potential to be a game-changer for the industry in the US. Imagine if by 2030 it builds out 2,000 to 3,000 charging stations with 25,000 to 30,000 stalls that can charge CCS and NACS-equipped vehicles at speeds up to 400 kW.
To put that into perspective, Tesla currently has about 2,600 Supercharger locations with 30,000 stalls in the US. Walmart could match what it took Tesla 13 years to do in under five years. It has the money, the locations, and it appears the desire to do so.
Additionally, think about the impact this will have on Walmart’s competitors like Costco and Target. I believe they will have to step up their own EV charging plans or risk losing their EV customer base to Walmart. If they can get the same goods at Walmart and charge while they shop, why not just go there?
I believe the Walmart charging network will be appreciated more by individuals who cannot charge at home and rely on public infrastructure than those using fast chargers for long-distance travel. They can now charge their EVs without inconvenience while they perform their usual weekly shopping. And Walmart, being a value brand, I’m sure will offer competitive pricing for EV charging if not find a way to undercut the competition.
I know a lot of people with EVs, and others thinking of buying one were concerned with the Trump administration’s decision to shutter the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) plan. However, with Walmart now committed to building a nationwide network, the Ionna network just getting started, and Tesla, Electrify America, EVgo, and the other networks continuing to expand, high-speed public EV charging in the US is going to be just fine.
