Walmart Just Opened Its First Charger North of the 37th Parallel. It Costs 37% Less Than Nearby Tesla.

Walmart's DC fast charging network launched less than a year ago and already operates 31 locations across the US. The newest is at a Freehold, New Jersey Walmart Supercenter, the first of the chain's charging sites north of the 37th parallel. The other 30 sit south of that line, concentrated in Texas and Arizona. The Freehold station has eight Alpitronic HYC400 chargers, each rated at up to 400 kW, with both CCS and NACS connectors on every pedestal. State of Charge's Tom visited two days after opening and charged at $0.39 per kWh. A nearby Tesla Supercharger, about two miles away, was showing $0.62 per kWh at the same time of evening. That is 37 percent less at Walmart than at the Supercharger for power drawn from the same grid.

Walmart's position in the charging market is different from most networks. Electrify America, EVgo, and Ionna focus on highway corridors for long-distance drivers. Walmart's 5,200-plus US store locations, within 10 miles of over 90 percent of Americans, make their footprint useful for a different kind of customer: apartment dwellers, renters, and anyone else who cannot charge at home and needs reliable weekly access. The company previously hosted third-party chargers from several networks on its properties. That arrangement is winding down as leases expire. Walmart has stated it values its partnerships without committing to renew any of them, and the direction is clear enough. The network now uses the Walmart app for authentication: plug in, scan a QR code on the charger screen, select your connector, and billing runs through a stored credit card.

The Alpitronic HYC400 units at the Freehold location include an overhead cable management system that keeps cables clear of vehicles and extends far enough to reach the adjacent parking stall, useful given that both CCS and NACS cables are mounted on the same pedestal. Tom pulled around 120 kW during the session due to arriving at a high state of charge, well below what the unit could deliver to a vehicle arriving at a lower battery level. The network has been doubling in location count over short periods, similar to the early trajectory of the Ionna network before it accelerated. Walmart's app shows real-time stall availability and power levels for its own locations. Third-party sites still appear in the app but without those details. A planned on-site interview with Walmart's general manager of retail EV charging was expected for late May 2026.

Bottom line: The pricing is the most interesting part of this story. If $0.39 per kWh holds and scales across the network, Walmart will consistently undercut most of the competition in the markets where they operate. And the locations are not for road trips, they are for the weekly grocery run, which makes charging accessible to a different set of people than corridor-focused networks ever reached.