Charging Ahead: Olivia Rath Helps Walmart Build the Future of EV Infrastructure

If you’ve ever tried to charge your electric vehicle and found the station out of order—or worse, nonexistent—you’re not alone. “Reliability is a big gap in the fast-charging industry today,” says Olivia Rath, an Erb Institute alum now serving as Senior Manager of Strategy and Business Development on Walmart Energy’s Retail EV Charging team.

That’s exactly the gap Walmart is aiming to close.

In 2023, the company announced plans to launch its own EV charging network—fully owned and operated by Walmart. Rath joined the team at a pivotal moment, just as the ambitious project was getting off the ground.

“It's kind of been a race to define the operating model, build a strategy that we felt really confident about, identify partners through RFP processes, go through contract negotiations and build a product,” she says.

The first site went live in March, giving Walmart customers access to clean, well-lit, and conveniently located charging stations—right by the store entrance—via the Walmart app. The goal? Combine reliability, affordability, and convenience in one seamless, retail-integrated experience.

“Ninety percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart as the crow flies, so we have a lot of great real estate across the U.S. where we can add this offering,” Rath says.

The EV network is just one piece of Walmart Energy’s broader vision to ensure a clean, affordable, and economically viable energy future for the company.

Working at a major retailer wasn’t where Rath initially saw her sustainability career headed. “I had never dreamt that I would work for a retailer, as someone who's very passionate about sustainability,” she says. However, she’s found that Walmart’s scale and reach make it a powerful platform for change. “The platform that Walmart offers in terms of making the energy transition more accessible is really energizing. And it's something that everyone who I work with at Walmart really takes seriously.”

At Walmart, cross-functional collaboration is key—something the Erb Institute helped prepare her for. “The best parts of Erb for me were the times where I was building things with other Erbers,” she says, recalling her experiences as a cofounder of both Michigan Climate Venture and Ross Climate Week.

That entrepreneurial mindset still guides her work today. “If there's something that you're interested in doing, and if it doesn't exist, find a friend and build it, and you will learn a ton,” Rath says.