The Navy has announced a pilot program that will bring electric vehicle charging stations to Navy Exchanges in Maryland and California over the next two years.

The first store will be NEX Bethesda, Md., at 48 cents per kilowatt hour, a Navy statement said Tuesday. Stations will be added at NEX San Diego and NEX North Island this year and NEX Annapolis, Md., in 2014.

Pricing may differ but will be competitive with stations in the surrounding area, the release said. The locations were chosen due to a high concentration of electric vehicles.

"We are piloting this program to meet the needs of our customers who own electric vehicles," said Robert Bianchi, chief executive officer of the Navy Exchange Service Command. "Electric vehicle charging stations are a win for our customers, for the Navy and for the environment."

Customers will be able to pay with either radio frequency identification credit or a ChargePoint keycard, which acts like a debit card, the statement said.

Electric vehicles and charging stations are not new for the Defense Department, which has a fleet of thousands of smaller battery-powered vehicles and has added "road-capable" electric cars like the Chevy Volt in recent months. As of August, the military had acquired 168 road-capable, plug-in electric vehicles.

Charging stations have been added at fewer than 50 installations for these government vehicles, officials have said. Officials are pondering other locations and how to fund them.

In Bethesda, an adjacent parking garage also features two electric vehicle charging spots reserved specifically for eco-friendly, low-emissions vehicles, the statement said.

Off-base charging stations have also sprung up near installations in Hawaii and along the West Coast.

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