EA appears to be attempting to remake their image. As the poster child for 'poor service' and direct competition from the undisputed industry leader on the horizon, even EA must see that a massive effort is required to stay in business.
With Walmart planning to install their own charging network, EA may be about to feel pressure from two sides as customers flee to Tesla and leases at Supercenters start expiring.
Not just Tesla competition, but a bunch of other networks, aided by NEVI, which is billions more than Dieselgate.
GM and Nissan link up with EVGo. GM has a deal with Pilot/Flying J and EVGo.
Wal*Mart is building its own. It announced plans last April and are going to add chargers (at least to some of them) as part of planned redesign of stores.
Walmart is kicking off plans to build and remodel hundreds of stores in the US – and those plans include installing DC fast chargers.
electrek.co
12 months from end of January 2024, 650 store remodels.
And of course a group of manufacturers said they planned to have their own networks. But that's not moved much.
Meanwhile in 2024Q3 EA will begin Dieselgate Cycle 4 of 4, which means their war chest will be a lot emptier. They will also get a bunch of NEVI funding, but now they'll be far from the only CCS game in town _and_ the NEVI locations are guaranteed to be within 1 mile of highway exits, which means that some other locations may be preferred to existing EA locations.
For example, on a trip in our Kona last year, we crossed Scranton to charge at EA. But there is a planned NEVI Tesla Supercharger at a Wawa right by the next exit, and an already-opened 4-stalll NEVI EVGo 10 miles south in a Pilot in Pittston that we would probably have used instead.
Also in PA, it's worth nothing that while EA is going to add a location at Sheetz in Tyrone*, the Sheetz Altoona location is listed under the Sheetz name. As with Walmart, which is likely going to have its own branding, I expect that many of the larger gas station chains will be looking to run their own charging networks. That could not just affect Electrify America, it could affect other companies, including Tesla. It may just be a branding change, but it could change the prospects for dedicated charging companies who would have to look to smaller chains to have their own branded stations.
However, with the shift to J3400, as well as Tesla moving into Electrify America's space, Electrify America is going to move into Tesla's space. A switch of plugs is going to give them a _much_ bigger established market than they currently have.
* we filled up our Volt there a number of years ago
