There's perhaps no American retailer better positioned to make electric vehicle charging more ubiquitous than Walmart. It has thousands of stores, enormous parking lots, and millions of customers who already shop there. Now it's taking full advantage, rapidly filing parking lots with fast chargers, even as EV sales are sluggish.
The strategy is gathering serious momentum. Walmart added 368 public fast-charging ports to its stores in the second quarter, more than any network in the U.S. apart from Tesla. Recently, it opened up its 100th owned-and-operated fast-charging station, expanding its footprint to 20 states.
So I went to one in New Jersey to see what it’s actually like to plug in with one of the charging industry's hottest up-and-coming players. The plan was simple: drive my Toyota bZ Woodland press car to Walmart, run our usual 10-80% charging test, hit the grocery store, and grab a snack and an energy drink to savor on the drive back home to Brooklyn.
Here’s what actually happened: I spent 40 minutes at the Walmart charging station, didn’t add a single electron to the press car, and didn’t end up buying groceries because, well, the poor charging experience just killed the mood.
