Electric vehicle drivers traveling through the Tri-Lakes area have another place to recharge after Walmart opened a new fast-charging station at its Monument Supercenter, part of a nationwide expansion of the retailer’s electric vehicle charging network.

Walmart and ABB E-mobility representatives joined local officials Aug. 20 for a ribbon-cutting at the store, 16218 Jackson Creek Parkway. The Monument location marked the 100th site opened as part of Walmart’s national EV charging network and the sixth Walmart charging location operating along Colorado’s Front Range.

Other Colorado Walmart locations with charging sites include stores in Aurora, Broomfield, Loveland and two in Colorado Springs.

The charging equipment is provided by ABB E-mobility, a global electric vehicle charging technology company that says it has deployed more than 74,000 DC chargers and electrified more than 10,500 sites worldwide.

Walmart and ABB E-mobility announced their collaboration in April, initially rolling out ABB’s A400 All-in-One fast chargers at seven Walmart locations in the Phoenix area, with sites in Colorado, Florida and Georgia among the first in a planned nationwide expansion.

The companies have said placing chargers at Walmart stores is intended to make charging more accessible by locating stations where drivers are already likely to stop. Walmart and Sam’s Club operate more than 5,200 stores nationwide, with about 90% of Americans living within 10 miles of one of the retailer’s locations.

ABB’s A400 charger is designed for public fast-charging locations and can be configured to provide 200, 300 or 400 kilowatts of power. The units can charge two vehicles simultaneously and dynamically distribute available power between them. The system also includes a 32-inch display designed to provide drivers with a familiar, smartphone-like interface.

The Monument opening comes as Colorado continues a broader effort to expand fast-charging infrastructure across the state.

Colorado had about 486 public EV fast-charging locations as of late August, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. State officials said 83% of Colorado’s state highway network is now within 30 miles of a DC fast-charging station, compared with 40% in August 2020.

“Colorado has reached the point where we are no longer simply building the foundation of an EV fast-charging network,” CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said. “We are filling in the remaining gaps and making that network increasingly useful for travel throughout the state.”

The state’s charging expansion has been supported by a combination of private investment and state and federal programs. Colorado has been allocated about $56.5 million over five years through the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, or NEVI.

As of August, 17 NEVI-supported fast-charging locations were operating in Colorado and another 33 awarded locations were under development. Those operating sites include stations in Monument, Longmont, Frisco, Grand Junction, Limon, Sterling, Durango and other communities around the state.

The state is now focusing increasingly on filling remaining gaps in rural communities, mountain corridors and other locations where lower traffic volumes and long distances have historically made private charging infrastructure more difficult to develop.

“Public investment has helped make it possible to establish charging in locations that are essential to a truly statewide network but can be more difficult for the private market to serve on its own,” Lew said.

For Monument, the Walmart station also adds another charging option along the Interstate 25 corridor between Colorado Springs and Denver, allowing EV drivers to charge while shopping or stopping during longer trips.

ABB E-mobility describes retail locations such as supermarkets as particularly suited to EV charging because drivers can recharge their vehicles while making stops already incorporated into their daily routines.

Colorado officials say continued expansion of stations such as those in Monument is moving the state closer to a point where charging becomes a routine part of highway travel rather than infrastructure concentrated primarily in major population centers.

“Every one of these projects makes the map a little more complete,” Lew said.