Wal-Marts Proposes Selling Hybrids at Its Stores
January 24, 2008

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly has discussed with automakers the possibility of selling hybrids and plug-in hybrids at its stores, according to a report on Bloomberg News Thursday.

"Maybe there isn't room for Wal-Mart in this right now," Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott said in a speech to store managers and suppliers in Kansas City Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. "But something tells me that there may be some role for us in the future.''

Scott didn't identify the carmakers, other than to say they were "major'' companies.

David Abella, an analyst at Rochdale Investment Management in New York, with $2.5 billion in assets including Wal-Mart shares, told Bloomberg the idea of selling hybrids at Wal-Marts "a bit far-fetched.''

Bloomberg noted that Scott, who's overseen a 31 percent decline in Wal-Mart's stock-market value during his eight-year tenure, has staked his reputation on an environmental agenda that he said might save millions of barrels of oil annually and cut consumers' energy costs.

Wal-Mart plans to work with suppliers to make products that are 25 percent more energy-efficient over the next three years. Scott has laid out ideas for ways to supply energy to consumers, proposing wind turbines and solar panels to generate power so customers can charge electric cars in parking lots at the world's biggest retailer, Bloomberg reported.

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