America’s electric vehicle fast-charging market keeps throwing surprises every quarter. Despite the reset in EV sales momentum, the fast-charging network continues to grow at a rapid clip. New players like Ionna have ramped up quickly, deploying hundreds of new ports in just about a year since entering the market. But retail giant Walmart is coming in hot with its own charging ambitions, posting some serious numbers for Q2.
According to EV charging data platform Paren, Walmart outranked every charging network except Tesla in second-quarter deployments. Walmart added 368 new ports in Q2, behind Tesla’s 1,185 but ahead of ChargePoint (333), Red E (315) and Electrify America (202). That means Walmart alone accounted for 8.4% of new public fast-charging stations in the U.S. during the quarter, even though its all-time market share is still below 1%.
Photo by: Paren
It’s a remarkable surge for the retail giant. In the first quarter, Walmart ranked ninth in deployments, and it didn’t even crack the top ten in the fourth quarter of last year. Within a few months, it’s become the second fastest-growing EV charging network in the country.
Walmart might hold the secret to supercharging EV adoption in America, and it’s just getting started. Its footprint of more than 3,500 Supercenters gives it a structural advantage that practically no other charging network can match. It already owns the real estate, so it doesn’t have to negotiate leases or seek landowners’ permission. Every Walmart store sits on a huge parking lot, which means there’s plenty of room and flexibility to build large charging sites with multiple stalls. They also have bathrooms and food options, too, helping them compete with modern amenity-providing stations.
While shoppers stock up on groceries, their EV can top up, ready to go by the time they’re done. Walmart says more than 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of one of its stores.
Photo by: EV Charging Stations
The second-quarter numbers are just a small piece of Walmart’s grand ambitions. The company plans to install thousands of chargers by the end of the decade, and that buildout could help fill a critical gap in America’s fast-charging network. As Paren noted in its Q2 report, EV chargers are heavily concentrated in coastal metro areas, followed by the industrial Midwest, the Southeast and Texas. Walmart’s vast footprint in rural America could help close that gap and spur EV adoption in states where charging infrastructure remains sparse. The company already has stations planned in Nebraska, Montana, Oklahoma, Ohio and several other states.
It still has to navigate a patchwork of utility regulations and comply with local permitting laws state by state. But if it keeps up this pace of buildout, it could end up doing for EV charging what Tesla has done for years, which is push the whole industry forward.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com