Walmart charging grows, but one app failure exposes a weak spot

Walmart opened nine charging locations in August, according to State Of Charge's September network update. The standout was Fresno: its first Walmart-owned fast charger in California, at a Neighborhood Market on California 168. The channel had been tracking the buildout through permit filings for two years before that opening.

The build is real and the pricing is aggressive. A separate visit by InsideEVs, however, shows how an app problem can leave the cheapest-looking stop on a driver's route delivering no charge at all.

State Of Charge's end-of-August tally puts the network at 109 open locations and 910 stalls across 21 states, with 118 sites under construction and 230 permits on file. Texas has 28 open stations. Washington has eight, all using Alpitronic hardware, after having none on 27 May. These are the channel's tracked figures, not a live count of available plugs.

The same survey counts 14 openings in all of 2025 and 95 in the first eight months of 2026. A slower August therefore follows a substantial expansion, rather than erasing it.

Eight stalls, split evenly between CCS1 and NACS, are the template at 88 of this year's 95 sites, the channel reports. Walmart's own August announcement confirms charging at up to 400 kW and its 100th site in Monument, Colorado. Energy senior vice president Shayne Wahlmeier described the company's store footprint as a way to bring charging to more communities.

The survey lists Fresno at 61 cents per kilowatt-hour on peak and 41 cents off-peak, before a 10 percent Walmart+ discount. Its comparison is with a 68.9-cent California Supercharger on-peak average across 476 sites, not the price at every competing charger.

State Of Charge also changed its method: it now weights each station's prices by the hours they apply, then averages across stations. That produces 42 cents per kilowatt-hour, or about 38 cents for members, against the 53.8-cent national DC charging benchmark cited in the video. The resulting discounts are roughly 22 and 30 percent. They are comparisons of reported averages, not guaranteed savings on an individual session or a measure of what customers actually paid.

Time-of-use pricing applies at 72 of the 109 tracked locations. The channel puts average peak and off-peak rates at 47 and 29 cents, with the lowest member overnight rate at 21.6 cents. Drivers need to check their own station and arrival time; a network average cannot price a particular stop.

Omaha shows why that check can pay off. The survey's four sites fell from a flat 46 cents to daytime prices of 41 to 43 cents, adding a 29-cent overnight window from 10pm to 9am. With the member discount, the overnight price is 26.1 cents, before any applicable tax.

InsideEVs writer Suvrat Kothari's Freehold Township test supplies the caution. He reported arriving in a Toyota bZ Woodland at 12 percent charge, then leaving after about 40 minutes and five attempts without charging. His intended 10-80 percent test never began.

He had installed the Walmart app and saved a payment card beforehand. At the site, the QR scanner struggled and payment attempts returned errors. Reinstalling the app and trying a second dispenser did not resolve it. Kothari also noted successful PlugShare check-ins at the same station, alongside other complaints. One failed visit is evidence of a problem, not a network-wide failure rate.

Freehold's surveyed flat price was 39 cents, among the network's lowest daytime rates. That would have made it a useful stop if the session had started. Kothari instead charged at a nearby Ionna site, using a card reader.

Walmart's August announcement says additional payment options are planned. Responding to InsideEVs, the company said it was working with vehicle manufacturers and technology partners on compatibility, but did not identify what caused this failure. It would be premature to clear the hardware or blame the app alone.

State Of Charge has also identified sites under construction that were not yet in Walmart's app or website when the video was recorded. Permits and installed equipment can show where the network is heading, but drivers should confirm a station has opened before routing to it.

For now, Walmart's expansion gives drivers more possible stops, and its off-peak rates give them a reason to look. A payment method that still works when the app does not would make those stops easier to rely on.