Costco Tests Breakthrough Experiment

Costco is reportedly planning to host breakthrough fast EV charging stalls at its North Port, Florida, location, according to Electrek.

The charging stalls are produced by the EV charging company Electric Era, which was founded by former SpaceX engineers and aim to tackle the lack of reliable fast EV chargers nationwide capable of recharging a battery by up to 80% of its total capacity in 20 to 60 minutes, which would theoretically be about the time it takes a customer to shop at the big box warehouse.

Costco reportedly received six EV fast charging stalls from Electric Era within 54 days and could lead to future partnerships with the company or similar charging stations nationwide. More than 9 million new electric vehicles were reported to be registered in 2024, according to Experian, with the market share drastically outpaced the number of reliable chargers in North America, USA TODAY reports.

Level 2 chargers are reported to take hours to provide a vehicle with enough power to be beneficial to a driver. Level 3 charging stations, which more kilowatts, can result in more battery percentage gains within one hour compared to six to eight at Level 2.

Costco had at least 531 warehouses across the United States according to an article published by Visual Capitalist in 2023.