Around 90% of the United States’ population lives within a 10-mile radius of a Walmart or Sam’s Club.
As part of a partnership with VW subsidiary Electrify America, one of the nation’s most extensive open public EV networks, hundreds of Walmart and Sam’s Club shops will be outfitted with new fast-charging stations.
To capitalize on the rising popularity of EVs in the United States, Walmart Inc. aims to install its network of charging stations by 2030.
Walmart’s newly hired senior vice president of Energy Transformation, Vishal Kapadia, stated in an interview that Walmart has the potential to solve range and charging anxiety in a manner that no one else can in this nation.
There are widespread worries about reliability, performance, user-friendliness, and high equipment installation costs as the EV charging infrastructure expands in the United States. According to Kapadia, Walmart’s dependability and cost difficulties may be mitigated by purchasing its own chargers rather than forming a partnership with a network operator.
According to Kapadia, the new charging stations will be direct-current fast chargers; on average, each shop would have four of them.
Over 30,000 fast-chargers, capable of fully recharging a car in an hour or less, can be found throughout the United States, with the most powerful units costing service providers more than $100,000 each.
While electric vehicles (EVs) are still uncommon on American roadways, rising gas costs, expanding state subsidies, and cheaper new models have all contributed to a surge in EV adoption.
It’s been predicted that by 2029, electric vehicles will make up one-third of the North American market.
Walmart’s proposal coincides with Vice President Joe Biden’s pledge to provide 500,000 public EV chargers throughout the United States by 2030. In February, the White House finally unveiled regulations for a $7.5 billion government initiative to boost the business and construct charging infrastructure, particularly along U.S. roads.
