Costco - Now providing 350kw DC Charging Stations

[Gino]

For the same commodity indistinguishable by any qualities (except for, say, restrooms), sure.
But no, a $2 differential for gas that would indeed be "ridiculous" (as well as infeasible) is not the same as a $2 differential equivalent for ICE vs EV DCFC.

The EV cost per mile does depend on the EV as well. Larger EVs like the Hummer EV likely gets less than 2 miles per kw while a Nissan Leaf may get 4 miles per kw which would change what the equivalent gas cost would be.
My Taycan gets 2.7 miles per kw so that equates to approximately $6.40 a gallon gas which means I pay about $2.30 a gallon equivalent when I charge at home at 23 cents/kw.
So for me 64 cents is ridiculous since it makes my Taycan more expensive to drive than my Hummer H2 to Utah or Nevada which gets 13 mpg with gas prices at roughly $3/gallon.

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[Fun TC Driving]

This is a goodd news thread. Walmart has already started the process of adding their mega chargers (up to 400 KW), to almost all their stores by the end of the decade. I noticed yesterday in my small, 13,000 population town, the results of the Walmart survey crew out their two weeks ago, that lines were just painted on parking spaces for their EV charges. Circle K, Tim Hortons in Canda, Plaid Pantry, 7-11, new Buc-ee’s, Flying J/Pilot, and more major commerical chains adding them is great news for us all.

Here’s some info on Walmart’s program.

https://insideevs.com/news/757648/walmart-ev-charging-network-revealed/

 

[Gino]

This is a goodd news thread. Walmart has already started the process of adding their mega chargers (up to 400 KW), to almost all their stores by the end of the decade. I noticed yesterday in my small, 13,000 population town, the results of the Walmart survey crew out their two weeks ago, that lines were just painted on parking spaces for their EV charges. Circle K, Tim Hortons in Canda, Plaid Pantry, 7-11, new Buc-ee’s, Flying J/Pilot, and more major commerical chains adding them is great news for us all.

Here’s some info on Walmart’s program.

https://insideevs.com/news/757648/walmart-ev-charging-network-revealed/

Walmart will force all the other providers to make as much profit as they can to pay off their infrastructure investments before Walmart chargers come on line at far less than 64 cents per Kw. This is great news. It is likely Walmart will be at least as cheap as Tesla at roughly 48 cents per Kw or less during prime time, less after midnight along with discounts for Walmart+ customers. I can’t wait for the real competition to show up when Walmart/Sams Club drops the hammer one location at a time.
Walmart likely has much more leverage to negotiate lower utility rates than EA, Chargepoint, etc which don’t have large electric consumption for their warehouse stores and will have no lease costs since they own most of the land under their stores.

 

[Flying ace]

Walmart will force all the other providers to make as much profit as they can to pay off their infrastructure investments before Walmart chargers come on line at far less than 64 cents per Kw. This is great news. It is likely Walmart will be at least as cheap as Tesla at roughly 48 cents per Kw or less during prime time, less after midnight along with discounts for Walmart+ customers. I can’t wait for the real competition to show up when Walmart/Sams Club drops the hammer one location at a time.
Walmart likely has much more leverage to negotiate lower utility rates than EA, Chargepoint, etc which don’t have large electric consumption for their warehouse stores and will have no lease costs since they own most of the land under their stores.

Yep, hence why EA is now shifting to a software/hardware vendor. Costco elected to use EA as an one-stop shop. Walmart on the other hand is doing in-house software development (app, ,+ integration, HPC software).

Walmart is making a longer term investment by owning the hardware and software and the user experience end to end. Alpitronic+Paytor are the perfect vendors as they replicated this model thousands of times in Europe.

Here is the Alpitronic website that allows any charge operator to buy hardware, get software support and completely own the experience and branding.

https://www.alpitronic.it/us/hypercharger/

It could be both the Costco and Walmart
business approaches work.

 

[Zcd1]

Just to clarify:

Has it been confirmed that Costco Membership DOESN’T unlock different pricing at Costco EA locations?

 

[Gino]

Yep, hence why EA is now shifting to a software/hardware vendor. Costco elected to use EA as an one-stop shop. Walmart on the other hand is doing in-house software development (app, ,+ integration, HPC software).

Walmart is making a longer term investment by owning the hardware and software and the user experience end to end. Alpitronic+Paytor are the perfect vendors as they replicated this model thousands of times in Europe.

Here is the Alpitronic website that allows any charge operator to buy hardware, get software support and completely own the experience and branding.

https://www.alpitronic.it/us/hypercharger/

It could be both the Costco and Walmart
business approaches work.

I would expect you’re correct. These companies are masters at providing the best value to customers and they’re big enough to own the process from end to end.
I’m won’t be surprised if Amazon doesn’t jump into the game as well since they also have a large footprint for chargers with Whole foods & Amazon fresh but not as big as Walmart/Sams Club & Costco who will likely be the ones to dominate EV charging down the road. Even Target could decide to get in as well once there is no more free charging.
I used to charge at EA chargers at Target & Walmart when it was free and do my shopping. Once my free charging was over I stopped shopping at these Target & Walmart stores but switched to free delivery for everything except dairy, meat & produce.
When Walmart gives the best option for EV charging then I would tend to do most of my shopping at Walmart/Sam’s club just as I do buying gas from Sam’s Club or Costco.

 

[Jonathan S.]

I’m won’t be surprised if Amazon doesn’t jump into the game as well since they also have a large footprint for chargers with Whole foods & Amazon fresh

The Whole Foods EV charger near my in-laws could use an upgrade:

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