Walmart EV ChargerThe company's public fast-charging station left me baking in the sun for 40 minutes.There's perhaps no American retailer better positioned to make electric vehicle charging more ubiquitous than Walmart. It has thousands of stores, enormous parking lots, and millions of customers who already shop there. Now it's taking full advantage, rapidly filing parking lots with fast chargers, even as EV sales are sluggish. The strategy is gathering serious momentum. Walmart added 368 public fast-charging ports to its stores in the second quarter, more than any network in the U.S. apart from Tesla. Recently, it opened up its 100th owned-and-operated fast-charging station, expanding its footprint to 20 states.So I went to one in New Jersey to see what it's actually like to plug in with one of the charging industry's hottest up-and-coming players. The plan was simple: drive my Toyota bZ Woodland press car to Walmart, run our usual 10-80% charging test, hit the grocery store, and grab a snack and an energy drink to savor on the drive back home to Brooklyn.AdvertisementAdvertisementHere's what actually happened: I spent 40 minutes at the Walmart charging station, didn't add a single electron to the press car, and didn't end up buying groceries because, well, the poor charging experience just killed the mood. Testing New EV Chargers In The New York AreaI set my sights on a Supercenter in Freehold Township, New Jersey, which had the nearest Walmart charger to my abode in Brooklyn. To be clear, I didn't need to drive all the way to a Walmart just to charge. I could have simply charged at my neighborhood Tesla Supercharger, which is reliable and easy to use. But testing the different EV charging providers popping up across the tri-state area, learning how they work (or don't) and documenting the experience for you, the readers, is part of the job. I enjoy doing it. So I didn't mind the roughly hour long, 45-mile drive to Central Jersey from Brooklyn to try Walmart's chargers for the first time.Hyundai Ioniq 5 ChargingI drained the bZ Woodland's battery down to 12% on the drive out and was looking forward to testing how the Toyota wagon fared at this new station. Except this turned out to be less of a car review and more of a charging disaster. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe charging station was located in a huge parking lot, with four Alpitronic HYC400 units painted in Walmart's signature blue. The hardware can deliver up to 400 kilowatts and serve eight charging stalls, split evenly between NACS and CCS connectors.The bZ Woodland has a Tesla-style NACS port, so I was relieved that I didn't have to deal with an adapter. We're slowly getting past the adapter-hell phase of EV charging as more charging stations with both NACS and CCS ports come online. What the charging industry hasn't fully gotten past yet, however, is the seemingly inescapable smartphone app.The Smartphone App Horror StoryI knew most Walmart stations didn't have credit card readers yet, so I planned ahead. Before leaving, I downloaded the Walmart app, created an account, and added my credit card information so I could activate the charging session as soon as I arrived at the station. But activating a Walmart charger through its app was nothing like the experience at Tesla or, frankly, most other major charging networks. The screen on the side of the charger first asks you to plug in your car and then scan a QR code using the Walmart app. You then have to confirm the number of the charging port on your phone and hit a button to start the session. Simple enough, right? Not quite.Walmart EV ChargerThe app's QR-code scanner initially failed to detect the code displayed on the charger. I tried multiple times, closing and reopening the app and cleaning my camera lens in between. Eventually, the app recognized the code and directed me to the payment screen. I could also select the charger manually on the app without scanning the QR code, but that feature wasn't super clear to me and the app was glitchy.AdvertisementAdvertisementMy card details were already saved. But instead of starting the charging session, the app threw up a "something went wrong" message. I unplugged the cable and started the process all over again. This time, it also didn't help that the metal buttons on the charger felt like touching a hot skillet from sitting under the summer sun all day.After another round of plugging in, opening the app, and scanning the QR code, I got a different error: "We're having technical issues, try again in a moment." I also tried charging with the vehicle off, and then again with it on, because errors in how a car "handshakes" with a charger can happen too. No dice. By this point, I was pretty frustrated. Walmart EV ChargerWalmart EV ChargerPhotos by: Suvrat KothariSo I called Walmart's customer service line. The representative told me the errors were possibly due to connectivity problems or a Walmart app glitch. Admittedly, cellular connectivity wasn't particularly strong at the site, but I still had three or four bars and an LTE or 5G connection. All of my other apps were working just fine.AdvertisementAdvertisementHe recommended that I uninstall and reinstall the Walmart app, log back into my account, and try scanning the QR code again. Reinstalling an app I had literally downloaded before leaving home seemed ridiculous, but I gave it a shot. It didn't work. The same errors kept popping up. I tried the adjacent dispenser a couple more times, too, but that made no difference. By then, I had made five charging attempts and spent roughly 40 minutes trying to do the one thing it was there to do: charge the car. I was also getting roasted in the hot sun. If reinstalling the app didn't work, the representative asked me to give him a call back so that he could suggest other charging stations nearby. Walmart EV ChargerFortunately, I already had a contingency plan in mind. My backup was an Ionna Rechargery at a nearby Wawa gas station just four miles away. So after several failed attempts, zero juice added to the bZ Woodland, and probably a shade or two of extra tan on my skin, I gave up and headed there. I reached out to Walmart to see if they could investigate the issue. The company didn't share what exactly went wrong here, but noted that more payment options were on the way.AdvertisementAdvertisement"We want charging at Walmart to be simple and reliable," a Walmart spokesperson told me over email. "We continuously work with vehicle manufacturers and technology partners to improve compatibility. Customers may currently pay for charging through the Walmart app, and we continue to explore additional payment options."Hitting up Ionna was a totally different experience. I simply tapped my phone on the card reader, plugged in the cable, and the bZ Woodland started charging in less than a minute after I pulled up to the charger. As I waited for the bZ to juice up, I also noticed something else. There were no other EVs charging at the Walmart station while I was there. The Ionna station, meanwhile, was bustling.Ionna EV ChargingI can't say for sure that Walmart's charging problems fully explained the difference in traffic. But standing there watching one station sit empty while another nearby one was busy made the contrast hard to ignore. The irony is that both stations use the exact same charging hardware: Alpitronic HYC400s. The difference was how I was allowed to start the session. At Ionna, I could simply tap my card on the reader and start charging. At Walmart, I had to rely on an app that failed repeatedly.I don't particularly hate charging apps. If you're driving a non-Tesla EV without Plug & Charge capability, you're still going to use the Tesla app to activate charging at Superchargers. The Tesla app has never left me high and dry like this, with one notable exception when a widespread AWS outage took much of the internet down last October. It's been great otherwise. AdvertisementAdvertisementThat's what made the Walmart experience particularly frustrating. It felt like being teleported back to 2023, when getting a public charger to actually send electrons to an EV could sometimes feel like an exercise you didn't sign up for—downloading apps, ringing up the call center for help, fiddling with payment systems and credit cards. Exactly the kind of experience the industry is trying to leave behind. I've tested chargers from providers in the Northeast like Revel, EvolveNY, Applegreen Electric, and others. And although I've seen glitches here and there, things generally go fine these days. Some older Electrify America and EVgo stations have had out-of-order towers, but the experience never got this bad. If one charger didn't work, I'd simply use a different stall. Having to completely change charging locations is unacceptable in 2026. Ionna EV ChargingSome good news: Walmart is planning to add swipe- and dip-to-pay terminals to its charging stations, which should give customers a much needed alternative when the app doesn't work. Although it's unclear how quickly these upgrades will arrive and whether every single dispenser will be retrofitted with the payment terminals. The company's charging division is also relatively young, so teething issues aren't too surprising.Walmart has a vast national footprint, and its decision to build out fast charging at that scale could be genuinely game changing for EV drivers, particularly in places where charging infrastructure remains sparse. But building chargers is only half the battle. They also need to be easy to use, or else they're just expensive hardware sitting in a parking lot, bringing little value to the company and even less for the customers they're supposed to serve.AdvertisementAdvertisementMy experience could have been a freak one-off. PlugShare check-ins show many drivers have charged successfully at this same station. But some drivers have also reported failed sessions and a confusing app, echoing what happened to me. Until those card readers show up, I'd rather plug in elsewhere than roll the dice again.Contact the author: [email protected]Related StoriesWalmart's EV Charging Network Just Hit A Big Milestone: 100 Stations In 20 StatesWalmart EV Charger Deployments Exploded In Q2. Only Tesla Installed More PlugsWalmart Is Rolling Out 400 kW DC Fast Chargers With Huge ScreensWalmart Opens Up About Its EV Charging Network: Charge Better
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