Wawa has reached 150 stores that offer electric vehicle charging. The chain also launched its first battery-electric truck in partnership with Penske Logistics.
“It gives us great pride to cut a ribbon on our 150th store offering EV charging faster than we anticipated and to continue to grow the number of stores we have hosting EV charging,” said Brian Schaller, president of Wawa. “We’re also thrilled to spread our wings in the electric vehicle space by testing our first electric truck with Penske that will allow us to learn more about our continued efforts to have a positive impact on our EV journey.”
The convenience retailer began hosting EV charging in 2017. Wawa now offers Tesla Superchargers and EV chargers with both CCS and CHAdeMO connectors through providers such as EVgo, ChargePoint and Electrify America. To date, Wawa has hosted more than 6 million charging sessions across its network of EV charging locations. Wawa stores host more Tesla Superchargers than any other retail chain in North America, according to the company.
And in a new way to expand its EV journey, Wawa is partnering with Penske to operate a Freightliner eCascadia battery-electric truck as part of a six-month pilot program. This is the first electric truck used in Wawa’s history and the first Penske truck of this kind in the Philadelphia region. Wawa and Penske will test and learn more about this emerging technology to consider future application or expansion to its delivery fleet.
“We are very pleased to support our longtime customer Wawa with their sustainability journey in their fresh channel supply chain,” said Jeff Jackson, executive vice president of operations dedicated contract carriage at Penske Logistics. “We have depth and breadth of experience in this area.”
Wawa, with about 1,000 stores primarily in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C., has said it will expand through new construction in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. It is also testing an all-digital-store format on the campus of Drexel University in Philadelphia.
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