Thousands Of EV Fast Chargers Planned In Various States

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After writing about how EV fast chargers are coming to Walmarts in 19 states, here’s another big announcement related to a brand name retailer. Thousands of EV fast chargers will be installed in a variety of US states at Kroger, Foods Co., Fred Meyer, Fry’s Food Stores, Harris Teeter, King Soopers, and Smith’s Food and Drug locations. Kroger partnered with EVgo to expand the retailer’s EV charging infrastructure over the next decade..

“EVgo’s expanded relationship with Kroger introduces more fast charging options into Americans’ everyday lives,” said Badar Khan, CEO of EVgo. “Kroger is the grocery destination of choice for millions of Americans. Adding fast charging to Kroger locations will provide the growing number of EV drivers an essential amenity — the convenience of charging where they shop while empowering drivers with the freedom to choose electric.”

As with Walmart, Kroger is mainstream America. Neither company is about environmental advocacy; and there is nothing marginal about either one of them. 

The first EVgo fast charger site for the Kroger expansion is operating at a Smith’s store in Salt Lake City with 24 fast charging ports with a peak capacity of 350 kW. Additional locations are planned for Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Washington, and others.

If at least 150 fast charging stalls are installed through 2035 and each stall has two charging ports, the total number of ports would be over 3,000. Adding far more EV chargers at popular retail sites helps EV drivers who might have some hesitancy about driving their vehicles because they worry about “range anxiety.” Range anxiety in a sense is overthinking and future tripping about running out of electricity when in fact it may not happen. Maybe ten years ago when electric vehicles had significantly less range and the number of public EV chargers was much smaller, range anxiety was based in some real scenarios. Today there are a variety of EVs that have plenty of range and there are far more EV chargers available in public. Additionally, many of them are fast chargers, as we see with this particular partnership between EVgo and Kroger.

EV owners who have home chargers can charge at home, which is more convenient than driving a gas vehicle to a gas station and refueling there. When retail locations have public EV chargers, EV drivers can charge while shopping, which is more convenient than a gas car owner driving to a gas station to refuel. Electric vehicles have many benefits gas and diesel vehicles do not.