Fast Charging 2011 Nissan Leaf
Cracker Barrel did it at all its Tennessee stores, and Best Buy is doing it at stores all around the country. Now pharmaceuticals giant Walgreens is getting in on the action as well.
If you hadn’t guessed, we’re talking about installing electric car charging stations, a trend that's getting more common among big businesses across the nation.
Walgreens hopes to have the most charge points in the country by the end of the year, and to do so will need to install around 800 chargers in total. So far the company is making good on its promise, already having installed 240-Volt Level 2 charge points in more than 60 of its stores in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago areas.
Walgreens is working closely with charging-infrastructure provider 350Green, which is set to install around 425 charge points out of the 800. It will install units in the New York metropolitan area, starting with the "outer boroughs" where customers are more likely to drive to Walgreens than they are to stores in Manhattan.
Pricing is yet to be finalized but customers can expect to pay $3 to $4 for a 90-minute connection. However, Walgreens is also looking at installing a number of 480-volt D.C. fast chargers, though these will probably only account for about 10 percent of the total 800 charge points to be installed.
Other electric-car infrastructure partners so far announced by Walgreens include Car Charging Group and NRG Energy.
Beyond Texas and New York, expect Walgreens stores in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, the District of Columbia, Florida, New Jersey, Oregon and Tennessee to get the charging stations.
It certainly looks like we’re well on our way to having the one million electric car charge points by 2015 that was predicted last year.
