Last month Walgreens, second largest drugstore chain in the US, announced that it intends to install electric vehicle charging stations at approximately 800 of its almost 8,000 stores. The charging stations will feature either a high-speed charger that can add 30 miles of range in as little as 10 minutes of charging time, or a Level 2 charger that can add up to 25 miles of range per hour of charge. The charging stations will be  located at Walgreen stores in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. as well as select locations in Florida, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington state. Walgreens is already installing EV charging stations at more than 60 stores in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago.

Walgreen believes that its announced initiatives for 800 + 60 electric vehicle charging stations will make it the largest retail host of EV recharging in the United States.

The Walgreen initiative seems likely to signal that electric vehicle charging will probably not take place at current gasoline filling stations or even in municipal parking lots, though some municipalities have already announced that they intend to provide EV chargers in some municipal lots. GallonDaily predicts that electric vehicle charging will become a competitive feature of supermarkets, large drug stores, big box retail sites, and larger coffee shops. After all, why waste time sitting at a gas station when you could be shopping or eating donuts and drinking coffee during the time it takes to refuel your electric car.

For more information about the Walgreen initiative visit http://news.walgreens.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5452