NRG Energy announced plans to begin building electric vehicle charging stations (eVgo) starting in Houston in February 2011, then expanding throughout Texas and eventually the rest of the States. The charging stations can fully charge an electric vehicle in 30 minutes and will initially be installed at NRG partner locations like Best Buy and Walgreen’s with pending partnerships with higher education campuses along the highways.
Local electricity retailers will partner to supply power plans and consumers buying charging stations for their home through NRG will be able to subscribe to plans starting at $49 per month going up to $89 per month. Some plans include the cost of the electricity with unlimited use and free use at public charging stations.
Why Realtors should know about this new project is that as soon as 2011, homeowners may actually have charging stations in their home given that NRG does not charge for installation or maintenance, simply for use which means homeowners will (likely) just unsubscribe and leave the charging station in the home.
Note: the picture above depicts a public charging station, the home version is much less invasive.
This presents not only a new amenity that we will be seeing become commonplace in the market in a realistic timeframe but also presents a challenge for Realtors who are not aware of what it is or how it works. It should be known in the industry that service is not implied with the charging stations but it is certainly a low cost perk that will likely be a search criteria for homeowners that don’t know they can have it installed for free.
That said, perhaps Realtors will be suggesting homeowners have these installed prior to listing so an additional amenity can be listed online and on flyers.
If you live in Texas (like we do), you’ve already seen the NRG Energy charging station commercials and if you live elsewhere, you’ll see them soon. The great news is that these charging stations are no longer cost prohibitive or overly futuristic.
AG is not affiliated with any companies listed above.
