What exactly opened in Colorado
The milestone site is at the Walmart Supercenter at 16218 Jackson Creek Parkway in Monument, Colorado. It has eight plugs: four CCS1 and four NACS, each capable of delivering up to 400 kW. It is the network's 100th store-based charging site, spread across 20 states.
Walmart is not a charger maker. It buys hardware from Swiss company ABB E-mobility and Italian maker Alpitronic. The Colorado site uses ABB's A400 All-in-One. ABB says that unit can send the full 400 kW to one vehicle or split 200 kW to two EVs at once.
The numbers that actually matter
The headline "400 kW" sounds impressive, but most electric cars today cannot accept 400 kW. A mid-size family EV such as the BYD Atto 3 Evo we tested has a 74.8 kWh battery and a 220 kW maximum charging rate. Even that is more than many older EVs. The point of 400 kW cabinets is headroom: when you plug in a car that charges at 150–220 kW, the charger is not the limiting factor.
There are exceptions. In an early test at a McKinney, Texas Walmart, EV expert Tom Moloughney charged a GMC Hummer EV, which pulled more than 300 kW and went from 1% to 53% in 27 minutes, according to an InsideEVs test cited by Electrek.
The real ceiling is usually the car battery, not the charger. Future high-power charging will depend on cells that can accept that current without overheating, one of the reasons we have been following solid-state battery plans from BYD, CATL and Geely. With 5,200 Walmart and Sam's Club locations in the US, 100 sites means roughly one charging location for every 52 stores today. By 2030, the company wants thousands of stores covered.
Software built by Walmart, payment still following
Instead of using a third-party charging platform, Walmart Global Tech built its own software. It connects the chargers, processes live availability and performance data, handles payments, and feeds station information to Apple Maps, Google Maps, PlugShare, ChargeHub and Chargeway. Drivers use the existing Walmart app to find, start and pay for a session. Walmart+ members get a discount.
Credit-card payment at the charger is not standard yet. Walmart says additional payment methods are coming. That matters, because a family standing in the rain with two children does not want to download an app before charging.
For European readers, there is a clear contrast. Since April 2024, new public fast chargers above 50 kW in the EU must accept ad hoc card payments without requiring a subscription. The US network is still catching up on that specific convenience.
What this means for charging deserts and family life
Walmart's argument is simple: about 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart. That is a retail footprint most charging networks cannot match. A fast charger at a shop with toilets, food and a pharmacy makes a 25-minute stop much easier for families than a lonely corner of a motorway services area.
It is also a practical reminder that chargers are infrastructure, not gadgets. You can use our charging station map to see what is around your usual routes in Europe, and our charging cost calculator to compare what a similar stop would cost at home versus on the road. In our own database, we currently track 483 Supercharger locations across Europe, which shows how far even large networks still have to go before they feel as ordinary as a petrol station.
The honest weak spot
Walmart has reached 100 sites, but that is still a small number across a vast country. Availability, reliability and pricing are not yet fully tested at scale. The company is not publishing a single per-kWh price across the network, and app-based payment remains a hurdle for occasional drivers. Still, the combination of retail parking, 400 kW hardware and in-house software is a serious bet on making fast charging ordinary.
For European drivers, the hardware names are familiar: ABB and Alpitronic are already common on this side of the Atlantic. The difference is that Walmart is a tenant turned network operator, using its car parks as the business case. Watch whether European hypermarket chains follow the same logic more aggressively in the next two years.
Source: https://electrek.co/2026/08/21/walmarts-400-kw-ev-charging-network-just-hit-100-stores/
