DC fast charging stations sited next to a grocery store average 42 sessions per day — nearly five times the nine-session median across the U.S. fast-charging network examined in the 2026 State of Retail-First EV Charging report. The analysis comes from charging hardware maker Electric Era, EV data platform Paren, and the Transportation Energy Institute (TEI), and covers 4,105 DC fast charging stations rated at 100 kW or higher. It pairs fourth-quarter 2025 session data with utilization figures, reliability scores, and 17 categories of nearby retail amenities to rank which location types actually move charger usage.
Highlights
- Grocery proximity leads. Stations near a grocery store average 42 sessions per day, roughly 5× the dataset median of nine — yet only 6.7% of analyzed stations sit near one.
- Density compounds usage. Stations with 11 or more nearby amenities see 7× the utilization of isolated sites.
- Reliability sets a floor. Stations with a health score of 90 or above see a median of 17 sessions per day; unhealthy stations see just three, regardless of location.
- Malls are high-usage but underbuilt. Shopping-mall sites average 35 sessions per day (4× the baseline) but appear near just 3.7% of stations — the lowest penetration of any top-performing amenity type.
How Much Do Nearby Amenities Affect Charger Usage?
The report ranks amenity types by actual median sessions per day, and the spread between the strongest location types and the network baseline is wide.
| Location type | Median sessions/day | Vs. dataset median | Share of stations analyzed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near a grocery store | 42 | ~5× | 6.7% |
| Near a shopping mall | 35 | 4× | 3.7% |
| Dataset median (all stations) | 9 | — | — |
Beyond any single amenity, clustering matters: stations with 11 or more nearby amenities post 7× the utilization of isolated sites. The session data spans major open networks including Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, and IONNA, normalized through the charging-data platform run by co-author Paren.
Reliability Sets the Utilization Floor
Location is not the only driver. Stations with a health score of 90 or above record a median of 17 sessions per day, while unhealthy stations record just three — a gap that holds regardless of where the station sits. Broken chargers are dropped from routing apps and are rarely retried, the report notes.
John Eichberger, executive director of TEI, framed dependability as a precondition rather than a selling point. “In a growing EV market, reliability is no longer a differentiator — it’s the baseline expectation shaping customer trust and long-term utilization,” Eichberger said.
What the Data Means for Charging Deployment
The findings map the field’s largest performance gaps: the amenity types that draw the heaviest usage — grocery stores and malls — also carry the smallest share of installed chargers. Eichberger said charger placement is increasingly a strategic question tied to where drivers already are. “EV drivers are increasingly charging where they already live, shop, work, and spend time — a trend that is reshaping how the industry thinks about charging deployment,” he said.
He added that the effects now reach past the equipment itself. “The data suggests the impact of EV charging extends well beyond the charger itself. The broader retail and economic effects emerging around charging locations are becoming difficult for the market to ignore,” Eichberger said. Electric Era, one of the report’s authors, builds battery-backed DC fast chargers for retail sites.
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