Bethesda residents love to protect the environment and for many of us, an electric car seems like it might be really appealing.  A huge drawback is the lack of recharging stations.  What good is an electric car if you can’t count on being able to find a charger for it? After all, not everyone can walk from their home in Kenwood Forest or Chevy Chase! The good news is that  there are chargers for electric vehicles operating already at numerous locations across Montgomery County, including two in Bethesda.

Federal Realty, the management company for Bethesda Row, has installed its first car-charging unit – at 7115 Bethesda Ave.  The station is at the first parking spot past the elevators and costs 49 cents per kilowatt hour. Federal Realty, Bethesda’s own dynamo developer, is one of the firms taking the lead nationally in helping provide the infrastructure essential for the new electric vehicle technology to be implemented on a widespread  and even massive scale in the not-too-distant future.

Federal Realty also has charging stations at Rockville Town Square and at Pentagon Row in northern Virginia.

There’s already a charging station at Sun Trust Bank on Old Georgetown Road that opened in August 2011.  If these locations aren’t convenient, there is another car charging spot in Bethesda at 7101 Clarendon Rd., about a block off of Arlington Road.

There is also a plug-in spot at Chevy Chase Nissan, at 7701 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. Carstations.com, a website devoted to mapping the location of charging stations worldwide, says that there are now at least 57 car charging locations in Maryland alone.

If you don’t plan on staying just in Bethesda, then you might be happy to know that in Washington, DC, Carr Properties has two car charging stations in operation at downtown locations. There are also places to plug in at The American University (Katzen Arts Center), George Washington University (Academic Center on I Street NW), Days Inn on Connecticut Avenue NW near the Van Ness Metro, Washington Harbor in Georgetown (3000 K St. NW), National Public Radio and the Department of Transportation at 2000 14th St. NW.

If Bethesda sounds like the place for you, then give the Lise Howe Group a call. We are here to help you find that perfect home. If you want an environmentally friendly community you will love Bethesda!