- Walmart Inc WMT looks to add electric vehicle charging to thousands of U.S. stores by 2030 to ride the EV adoption wave and contribute to the cause.
- Walmart plans to add the fast-charging stations to Walmart and Sam’s Club stores coast-to-coast, more than quadrupling its current network of roughly 280 locations, the Washington Post reports.
- Entirely EVs made up 7% of new vehicle registrations in the U.S. in January, compared with 4.1% a year earlier, according to S&P Global Mobility.
- Also Read: Walmart-Amazon Rivalry Likely To Heat As As Former Boosts Online Look To Grab More Eyeballs
- However, EV adoption faced headwinds like concerns about high prices, sparse charging infrastructure, and the risks of road-testing new technology.
- Still, Walmart thinks demand has reached a tipping point, said Vishal Kapadia, the retailer’s senior vice president of energy transformation, in an interview.
- Over the last 18 to 24 months, Walmart has seen the use of its EV chargers grow “substantially,” in line with EV adoption around the country, Kapadia said.
- As of January, there were 150,000 public charging ports in the U.S., up by 38,000 from the beginning of 2022, according to the Energy Department.
- Kapadia said maintenance would be a top priority for Walmart’s network. The company sees EV charging as a profitable business on its own and a way to bring customers into stores, he said.
- Over the years, Walmart tried to tap its giant parking lots to draw customers in other ways, including allowing recreational vehicles to park overnight.
- Price Action: WMT shares traded higher by 0.47% at $150.38 on the last check Thursday.
- Photo via Wikimedia Commons
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