Lowe's to begin selling electric car charging stations

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s expects to make electric-car charging stations widely available to customers by this September.

Lowe’s plans to begin selling GE’s WattStation wall-mounted charging system at five stores in California starting in August. It says it will offer the charging stations at 60 stores in total, as well as online via its Lowes.com website, a month later.

It’s the first time the GE system will be offered by a retailer. Paul Foody, product general manager for GE Energy Industrial Solutions, called the move a “milestone” that will “help accelerate the mass adoption of EVs (electric vehicles).

The home improvement chain also plans to install commercial WattStations at some of its stores for use by the public.

The WattStation is a Level 2 charger that can fully charge a vehicle in four to eight hours, compared to standard overnight charging that can take as much as 12 to 14 hours.