As the driver of an electric vehicle, one clear thing dampens my enjoyment of my BMW i3. It’s not the lack of loud engine noises, or the fact that my car essentially operates in silence. It’s always feeling insecure about finding a place to charge.
Florida, where I live, has charging stations owned by Florida Power & Light, the dominant electricity provider in the state. The stations are common in some areas (especially along the Florida Turnpike) but harder to find in many places.
They’re also hit-or-miss when it comes to actually being operational. Earlier this week, for example, at a state-owned rest stop, I plugged in to charge, then went inside to get a coffee.
When I returned, the charger had malfunctioned and my battery only gained a few miles.
This isn’t a problem unique to me or the place where I live.
The real problem? Lack of convenient public charging. Nearly 40,000 public chargers were added in 2024, but EV advocate Tom Moloughney, host of the YouTube Show “State of Charge,” admits that “there’s not enough.”
“It’s also very regional — the coasts seem to have more charging infrastructure installed than the Midwest. There are regions of the country that are terribly underserved,” he said.
Reliability is also a problem.
Jonny Lieberman from the YouTube show “Driving with Jonny” said his local charging station in Southern California has “three cars charging 24 hours a day, with a line of three to 10 cars waiting.”
That’s an experience I have shared on the opposite coast.
Starbucks has made some efforts to add EV charging stations, but the size of its parking lots make that a challenge in many markets.
Enter Walmart, which certainly has the real estate to solve the problem.
Walmart has a massive footprint
One of the bigger challenges when it comes to EV chargers is that there’s no fully updated app or service that reliably points you toward a charging station. A lot of apps exist, but there have been countless times I follow directions to a charging station, only to find that it’s not there, it’s broken, or it’s only for Teslas.
Very few retailers have enough real estate to solve the EV industry’s charging problem. Dollar General, for example, has more than 20,000 U.S. locations, but most have relatively small parking lots, and the chain’s audience does not really overlap heavily with people who own EVs.
That second part might be a problem for Walmart as well, but the chain certainly could make it convenient for EV owners in need of a charge.
“Approximately 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart or Sam’s Club,” Walmart shared on its website.
That would allow it to provide the mass level of charging that Tesla and other EV makers need to make their vehicles truly viable.
“The U.S. is expected to need roughly 1.2 million public EV chargers by 2030 — a massive increase from roughly 219,000 public charging ports available today,” according to The 2030 National Charging Network report from NREL.
Walmart adds EV chargers
Walmart has been quietly adding EV charging stations since 2023.
“By 2030, we intend to build our own EV fast-charging network at thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club locations coast-to-coast,” the chain shared in a press release.
The company has stepped up those efforts.
“Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, has increased the size of its electric vehicle charging network in the United States by 50% in just two months,” according to Inside EVs.
The retailer has not shared many details about its plans.
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“The initial development was quite slow. The first locations became operational in April of last year, and the multinational company reached 10 charging stations in November 2025. Three months later, the network size had doubled, reaching 20 stations in February, and now that number has gone up to 31,” the EV website added.
Walmart installs 400-kilowatt chargers exclusively, either from Alpitronic or ABB, with each stall being fitted with an NACS cable and a CCS1 port. That means that all widely sold EVs, including Tesla models, can be charged there.
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Americans are wary of EVs
The current political climate has lessened Americans’ interest in EVs.
“Despite the wide variety of electric vehicle (EV) models now available — over 75 options introduced in the past four years — AAA’s latest survey highlights buyers’ continued hesitation. Only 16% of U.S. adults report being ‘very likely’ or ‘likely’ to purchase a fully electric vehicle (EV) as their next car, the lowest percentage recorded of EV interest since 2019. The percentage of consumers indicating they would be ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ to purchase an EV rose from 51% to 63%, the highest since 2022,” according to a AAA survey.
The study showed why people are hesitant to buy an EV.
- High battery repair costs (62%) deterred many.
- Purchase price (59%) discouraged others.
- Respondents perceived EVs as unsuitable for long-distance travel (57%).
- They perceived a lack of convenient public charging stations (56%) and feared running out of charge while driving (55%).
- Almost a third (31%) of those undecided or unlikely to buy an EV had safety concerns.
- More than a quarter (27%) reported challenges installing charging stations at their residences.
- More than one in 10 (12%) cited the potential reduction or elimination of tax credits and rebates.
EVs, at least in the United States, face a murky future.
“Despite advancements in the EV industry and the growing availability of models, public perception regarding the future of EVs remains uncertain. The percentage of U.S. drivers who believe that most cars will be electric within the next ten years has significantly declined from 40% in 2022 to 23% this year,” AAA reported.
TheStreet’s retail advisor and RTMNexus CEO Dominick Miserandino think that Walmart is right to add EV chargers.
“I literally just left a Walmart charging,” he said in a message to TheStreet. “To me, it’s a genius idea because the cost of implementing the chargers and even sometimes have free charges, creates a network of people who are stopping to not only fill up for 20 minutes, they have the opportunity to go shopping.”
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