Note: I submitted using the article's subtitle instead of the title, because the title was much less informative. The title is "EXCLUSIVE: Walmart EV Charging Network — Save Money, Charge Better".
I did have to shorten the subtitle to fit. The full subtitle is "Walmart plans expansive EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years".
At least in the Pacific Northwest most Electrify America installations are in Walmart parking lots. These have caused me to spend more time at Walmart the past two years, honestly its a pretty good experience - aside from EA reliability issues, which seem to have improved but still far short of Tesla.
> honestly its a pretty good experience - aside from EA reliability issues, which seem to have improved but still far short of Tesla.
Going from the Tesla Supercharger network I can't share this sentiment at all. Virtually every time I charge at an EA station (which is admittedly only a few times a year) there is either random power degradation with no notice or one or many totally dysfunctional stalls. This latest time a few days ago the only open stall was busted because the terminal said to unplug from the last session over an hour ago.
The flakiness is compounded by the lack of chargers per station. Superchargers often have 10 or even 20 chargers, EA chargers often have 2 to 4 chargers so a charger going out is much worse.
Every time I've used an EA charger there was an open one and all I had to do was just drive up and plug in. The car negotiated payment and it worked fine with reasonable charging rates.
I have a hard time just picking up and plugging that heavy fatass CCS connector. And then I have to try plugging it in 3 times because it waits for the car and the car waits for it and one gives up before the other succeeds.
Makes a lot of sense from my amateur perspective. It takes a bit of time to charge a car, and you might as well use it to buy your groceries. Plus I'm sure WM can get a sensible bulk discount on electricity.
Add to that, you can make people use your app and show them targeted adverts. You can get them to buy any bulk goods for pickup when they are charging the car.
Only trouble is, the cars charge too fast now days! An 800V vehicle like the Ioniq 5 can often be topped up in under 15 minutes, barely enough time to buy a coffee and use the restroom, let alone do any grocery shopping!
And some charging networks apply idle fees if you don’t move your car quickly when charging completes.
Of course, a car can only charge as fast as the charger, so maybe it makes sense (and certainly saves money) to install slightly slower ones at locations where customers are likely to want to spend longer times.
Fast charging degrades the battery. Obviously you will choose a slower charger if you know you will be gone for 45 minutes.
Walmart is also unlikely to have these charges, since they obviously do not want people to rush through their stores. (Obviously charges after a couple of hours might be there.)
The State of Charge YouTube video that covered the announcement and visited a site in McKinney, TX indicated it did need the Walmart app[0].
Sigh. Plug and pay charging is so much better. It’s not like this is a Tesla only feature. Ford has thousands of chargers beyond SuperChargers that just work for plug and pay.
My guess is that this will be less of a problem for Walmart than it is for other EV charging networks because with the other networks all their app is good for is EV charging at their network.
With Walmart the EV charging is just going to be another thing managed from the Walmart app. I'd guess that a significant majority of people who will be wanting to charge there already use Walmart for other things and have the app.
While I really hope that they do a great job with it, I have no faith in Walmart to offer an effective charging network. Doing everything on the absolute cheap leaves a lot to be desired.
They were great when they were expanding and had great stores to lure you away from the competition, but now they operate under maintained not well staffed stores with confusing self checkout and obtrusive surveillance everywhere. It’s just a total race to the bottom at their stores.
Hopefully it will encourage better players like Target to follow suit.
Anyways, reality is that people buy EVs to charge them at home most of the time. At least thats what I think the reality is.
The quality of store management seems to affect a lot when it comes to Walmart. I have been to some Walmart stores where I have never seen any unfolded clothing. I have been to some Walmart stores where I have never seen any folded clothing.
An organization as large as Walmart has the wherewithal to put together an effective charging network if they decide it is a priority. One of the nice things about being first-party is that they will likely have a preventive maintenance program and emergency maintenance program for the chargers, and some of that can be done by the company electrician.
I have a Tesla, and due to various factors (apartment living, other family members with Teslas), I almost exclusively use public chargers. I have some opinions of what amenities I want at a charger (bathroom, cold diet coke), but in general the chargers at gas stations, grocery stores, and Walmarts are the best for me. Restaurants and malls are actually not great amenities because that's often not the mood you are in when you arrive at the charger.
I think the app will be for plug-and-charge users, while they'll have credit card readers for everyone else.
I do agree that chargers requiring an app are a royal pain. We're an all-EV household and I don't bother with local chargers that don't have readers or support plug-and-charge. There's a lot of Shell chargers in our area that require an app to work and almost no-one uses them because of how clunky it is.
The article says the app is the primary way to activate the charger (scan a QR code on the dispenser) while they'll have credit card terminals for states that require it.
It will likely work for Walmart because as of 2021 the Walmart app had 120 million active monthly users [1]. That's almost half of the US adult population.
For all of those people, using the chargers won't require downloading some new clunky app that they only have because of EV charging.
It will be that an app they already have and use regularly and already have their payment information adds EV charging to the list of Walmart goods and services that they already use it for.
I doubt they'd get away with it. If they thought they could they'd already have done it, but it'd probably result in a lot of legislation and companies don't want regulation. The only reason Walmart can get away with it is that very few people have an electric car.
The app says that credit card access will be available in the future “at least” in states that require it.
> This is an accessibility issue and as such should be illegal...
Assuming it was app-exclusive, you would have a hard time convincing anyone that someone might be capable of driving an EV on the road while also having enough of a disability to make it impossible for them to use a phone app.
There are already members-only gas stations such as the ones attached to Costco. This would be following the same pattern but with an app instead of a card, which is actually far more easy to acquire than a paid Costco membership.
I've driven EVs since 2013 across several states and I've never once encountered a functioning public charging station in the US that has a credit card reader and does not require payment and/or access via an app. I'm all in favor of it, and I understand they technically exist, but perhaps your specific locality requires that? It's in no way my experience.
Vulture capitalists want to know where you live and your income level so they can sell your profile on to other data brokers. Cash is practically a communist plot to give people freedom and liberty.
Chaotic good, I could imagine Walmart deciding to sell a miniature EV for around $12,000.
Imagine something like a two-seater City car, while I'm dreaming I imagine this type of vehicle completely taking over for most City commuting. Since these would be smaller and slower than normal cars, they would be phenomenally safer.
Especially when they are at Walmart to purchase it with a grocery cart full of groceries that you’d be hard pressed to fit in the E-Smart Car equivalent.
>Chaotic good, I could imagine Walmart deciding to sell a miniature EV for around $12,000.
There have been many, many car projects like that from large and small companies. All of them failed to get any kind of mainstream audience.
People want general purpose cars and they will not buy anything else.
>Since these would be smaller and slower than normal cars, they would be phenomenally safer.
City driving at 50kmh is already dangerous in regular cars. Either you limit traffic to something like 25 kmh or you have to accept that crashes are now more dangerous.
For your consideration, the Smart Fortwo electric drive. They really tried. Not a success. While I never owned one, I drove them several times and I liked them!
A 2 seater is never going to work in America. But electric trucks and vehicles definitely can if charging stations are ubiquitous and there is no range anxiety.
I hope they pair this with solar panel awnings in the parking lots. 30 acre parking lots in Central Texas (and I am sure elsewhere) are a killer. I am not sure why more big box stores (HEB, Home Depot, etc.) have not been a little more active with this sort of thing.
Readit News
I did have to shorten the subtitle to fit. The full subtitle is "Walmart plans expansive EV Charging network which will blanket the US within a few years".
Going from the Tesla Supercharger network I can't share this sentiment at all. Virtually every time I charge at an EA station (which is admittedly only a few times a year) there is either random power degradation with no notice or one or many totally dysfunctional stalls. This latest time a few days ago the only open stall was busted because the terminal said to unplug from the last session over an hour ago.
The flakiness is compounded by the lack of chargers per station. Superchargers often have 10 or even 20 chargers, EA chargers often have 2 to 4 chargers so a charger going out is much worse.
Driving a Mach E around Texas.
Add to that, you can make people use your app and show them targeted adverts. You can get them to buy any bulk goods for pickup when they are charging the car.
And some charging networks apply idle fees if you don’t move your car quickly when charging completes.
Of course, a car can only charge as fast as the charger, so maybe it makes sense (and certainly saves money) to install slightly slower ones at locations where customers are likely to want to spend longer times.
Walmart is also unlikely to have these charges, since they obviously do not want people to rush through their stores. (Obviously charges after a couple of hours might be there.)
Deleted Comment
Sigh. Plug and pay charging is so much better. It’s not like this is a Tesla only feature. Ford has thousands of chargers beyond SuperChargers that just work for plug and pay.
[0]: https://youtu.be/_UIVp8Upvj8?si=eX9EMWKi6sho4DnT
With Walmart the EV charging is just going to be another thing managed from the Walmart app. I'd guess that a significant majority of people who will be wanting to charge there already use Walmart for other things and have the app.
They were great when they were expanding and had great stores to lure you away from the competition, but now they operate under maintained not well staffed stores with confusing self checkout and obtrusive surveillance everywhere. It’s just a total race to the bottom at their stores.
Hopefully it will encourage better players like Target to follow suit.
Anyways, reality is that people buy EVs to charge them at home most of the time. At least thats what I think the reality is.
An organization as large as Walmart has the wherewithal to put together an effective charging network if they decide it is a priority. One of the nice things about being first-party is that they will likely have a preventive maintenance program and emergency maintenance program for the chargers, and some of that can be done by the company electrician.
I have a Tesla, and due to various factors (apartment living, other family members with Teslas), I almost exclusively use public chargers. I have some opinions of what amenities I want at a charger (bathroom, cold diet coke), but in general the chargers at gas stations, grocery stores, and Walmarts are the best for me. Restaurants and malls are actually not great amenities because that's often not the mood you are in when you arrive at the charger.
8-(
I've _never_ been required to "join the club", or "run the app" to purchase gasoline.
Why does charging an EV require use of an app?
This is an accessibility issue and as such should be illegal...
I do agree that chargers requiring an app are a royal pain. We're an all-EV household and I don't bother with local chargers that don't have readers or support plug-and-charge. There's a lot of Shell chargers in our area that require an app to work and almost no-one uses them because of how clunky it is.
For all of those people, using the chargers won't require downloading some new clunky app that they only have because of EV charging.
It will be that an app they already have and use regularly and already have their payment information adds EV charging to the list of Walmart goods and services that they already use it for.
[1] https://www.appsrhino.com/blogs/walmart-grocery-delivery-app...
Deleted Comment
> This is an accessibility issue and as such should be illegal...
Assuming it was app-exclusive, you would have a hard time convincing anyone that someone might be capable of driving an EV on the road while also having enough of a disability to make it impossible for them to use a phone app.
There are already members-only gas stations such as the ones attached to Costco. This would be following the same pattern but with an app instead of a card, which is actually far more easy to acquire than a paid Costco membership.
It doesn't. Almost all DC fast charging I've done has been plug and charge or with a normal credit card terminal.
Meanwhile when I buy gas at QT or Sam's Club I pay through an app.
* Donwload the Walmart app
* Scan the QR code
Planning long journeys means having an app for every stop.
It really shouldn't.
Imagine something like a two-seater City car, while I'm dreaming I imagine this type of vehicle completely taking over for most City commuting. Since these would be smaller and slower than normal cars, they would be phenomenally safer.
There have been many, many car projects like that from large and small companies. All of them failed to get any kind of mainstream audience.
People want general purpose cars and they will not buy anything else.
>Since these would be smaller and slower than normal cars, they would be phenomenally safer.
City driving at 50kmh is already dangerous in regular cars. Either you limit traffic to something like 25 kmh or you have to accept that crashes are now more dangerous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_electric_drive
Obviously it isn't great there, but it is not a car you can only drive in the city.