Jun 23 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Elizabeth Souder The Dallas Morning News


NRG Energy Inc. is about to offer Texans the first all-you-can-eat electric vehicle plan.

The power company, which owns Reliant Energy, will introduce an electric vehicle refueling service early next year. The service will include unlimited charges at home and at charging stations throughout Houston. It will cost around $60 to $80 a month.

By midyear, the company aims to offer the same service to drivers in Dallas, said Michael Harrigan, NRG's new vice president of electric vehicle services.

The idea is to offer electric vehicle buyers "a very clean, easy experience fueling the vehicle," Harrigan said after a Dallas Regional Chamber panel discussion Tuesday.

 Harrigan said he wants to keep the cost of refueling an electric car below the cost for a gasoline car. And he hopes that by making refueling easy, he can expand the market for electric vehicles beyond environmental enthusiasts.

The monthly rate will include leasing and installing a home refueling station, charging at stations around town and emergency charging, in case a driver runs out of juice.

If a driver is within 25 miles of the city center, he will always be no more than five miles from a refueling station.

The stations will be at national retail chains, such as coffee shops and electronics stores, he said. At-home refueling will take a few hours, but charging at public stations will take about 15 minutes.

Service contracts will probably be around three years long, Harrigan said.

At first, electric vehicle customers would have to buy their household electricity from Reliant to get free vehicle charges at home.

Harrigan said NRG might negotiate deals with other retail electricity providers to offer the service.

NRG competitors are developing their own electric vehicle service offerings. TXU Energy will offer a service once Nissan and Chevy roll out their electric vehicles next year, said TXU's vice president for public affairs, Brian Tulloh.

Tulloh said he isn't ready to describe TXU's service. It will probably involve charging customers less to juice up at night than during the day. He said it's challenging to decide what service plan customers would prefer because people don't have the cars yet.

"It's one of those things it's tough to research with customers because they don't know what they want," he said.

TXU Energy is working with policymakers to eliminate issues that might deter customers. For example, he said TXU is urging local governments to adopt uniform, simple permitting for residential charging stations.

Expanding the consumer market for electric vehicles means more business for such services. It also means more demand for power. NRG is the second-largest power generator in Texas, and TXU's sister company, Luminant, is the largest.

The electric companies aim to grab market share from the oil companies. Harrigan said it's symbolic that NRG leased offices in Houston for the electric vehicle unit in a defunct Hummer dealership.

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