Two city-owned properties in Sugar Land will receive electric vehicle charging stations this year.

The overview

At a July 16 meeting, Sugar Land City Council approved a 10-year agreement with OnPoint EV Solutions, Inc. for construction, operation and maintenance of public electric vehicle chargers at two city-owned properties, including:


The framework

As a part of the agreement, the city of Sugar Land has no capital investment in the project and provides the OnPoint EV staff with access to the city-owned properties for use, according to agenda documents.


Additional terms include:
  • OnPoint EV will invest approximately $1.6 million to set-up the two sites.
  • The city of Sugar land will receive $215 per month per electrical vehicle parking spot with a 3.5% increase per year.
  • OnPoint EV will also pay the city of Sugar Land a 10% utilization bonus for each charging station with an annual utilization of at least 6%.
In May 2023, CenterPoint Energy provided additional transformers to support adding chargers at the sites free of charge, according to agenda documents.

The background

In fall 2021, Sugar Land staff investigated potential spots for EV charging stations, including:
  • Sugar Land Regional Airport
  • Imperial Park Recreation Center
  • Gillingham Public Works Annex
  • City Hall
  • Brazos Park
  • Memorial Park
Ultimately, staff removed city hall “due to infrastructure and property ownership challenges,” and the EV vendor for the remaining sites pulled out due to an internal business model change, according to agenda documents.

Zooming out


Of the 295,274 electric vehicles registered in Texas, Harris County leads the state with 42,879 vehicles, according to Dallas-Fort Worth Clean Cities and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, using information from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles registration data and the Atlas EV Hub. Harris County is followed by Travis and Dallas counties with 37,551 and 30,536, respectively.

Fort Bend County falls eighth in the state with 16,285 registered electric vehicles, according to the data. It also has the second-most registrations in the Houston area, behind Harris County.

What they're saying
With the utilization of electric vehicles expanding, the city of Sugar Land is committed to meet the mobility needs of residents by providing infrastructure for diverse transportation options, Communications Director Doug Adolph said in an email.

"It’s clear that EV technology is having a huge impact on the world around us, and it going to continue doing so as time goes on," he said. "We believe it’s important to better position the city for the future to address the mobility needs of our residents, invest in more sustainable technology that helps improve our environment and take advantage of emerging technology to make sure our city remains competitive and relevant."
Going forward


The charging stations will take at least 22 weeks for engineering, procurement and construction with possible completion possible by the end of 2024, Adolph said.