Nissan North America Inc.’s campaign to sell electric vehicles had just gotten the support of the CEO of one of America’s biggest electric utility companies. David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton, N.J., which is an electricity provider in cities throughout the country, wants to play a role in Nissan’s goal.

Crane proposes to send marketing materials for the upcoming electric Nissan Leaf with customers’ monthly electric bills. Since the company also sends monthly statements out to 1.5 million customers in the Houston area, there’s a lot of marketing potential, according to Crane in an interview with Automotive News. Continued after the jump!

Crane added that Houston is one of Nissan’s biggest markets and since NRG owns the Houston power company, Reliant Energy, Crane’s support means a lot. This month Reliant signed on to join an increasing list of third-party partners helping Nissan launch Leaf sales in selected markets late next year.

Nissan has been hard at work in recruiting utilities, state governments, municipalities and others to help install highway recharging stations and address residential zoning rules to make home recharging easier. But Crane’s vision doesn’t stop there.

He proposes that Reliant act as a Nissan retail service supplier in Houston. Crane explains that when customers buy an electric vehicle, they are provided an option to buy a Reliant charger installation package from the Nissan dealer.

[via autonews]

Tags: car news, Nissan, nissan leaf launch, nissan news

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