As more and more businesses and individuals are committing to reducing their carbon footprint, electric vehicle technology is gaining popularity. One of the major challenges the industry is facing is building infrastructure to support the growing number of electric vehicles. In this regard, WattEV, a zero-emission trucks-as-a-service company, has been awarded two grants totaling $40.5 million for electric truck charging depots along the Interstate 5 highway.

James Carter, Strategist, Futurist, Leader, Influencer – Principal Consultant at Vision Mobility represents WattEV as a marketer and had this take on LinkedIn:

Electric truck charging stations and infrastructure are being built out at a rapid pace

“We’re building out the West Coast corridor while also reaching eastward along the I-10 toward Arizona and Texas and, eventually, to the East Coast. To expand the WattEV, Inc. network, we’ll match our grants with private capital to fund this massive infrastructure buildout.”
Salim Youssefzadeh, CEO WattEV

In building out a new energy system for any form of transportation, ensuring the rapid roll out of supporting energy infrastructure is key to making it happen.

Nowhere has this been more obvious than in the way that Tesla rolled out their #supercharger network.

Right now, the same is happening with electric trucks.

It seems that new announcements of truck charging centres are happening almost every day! This is extremely important as it cements electric trucks as the dominant energy system in heavy duty moving forward.

While these are now mostly in #california due to strong incentives and requirements for fleets to go #zeroemission, we’re now starting to see these spread further, particularly on the North American west coast and across the south west.

Electric trucks offer very significant advantages, including zero tailpipe emissions, much lower lifetime CO2 emissions, high efficiency, much lower operating costs, more power and safer handling.

Just after announcing the opening of their Port of Long Beach truck charging site, WattEV have announced the largest truck charging depot in the US (and probably the world) on a 100 acre site outside Sacramento.

This will be equipped with 138 charging points, some of which will be the ultra fast Megawatt Charging Standard plugs for recharging over the road long haul trucks in less than 30 minutes.

As well, WattEV have also announced their Bakersfield and San Bernardino sites.

Here at Vision Mobility we’re helping WattEV get the word out to understand how important electric trucks will be to the future of #freight and #logisitics. This is incredibly important as it is the lynch pin to reducing the thousands of premature deaths across the US that are the result of bad air quality, of which trucks are a significant contributor.

What are your thoughts on this rapid roll out of truck charging centres?
How long before electric trucks dominate freight hauling in your area?

The grants, provided by the California Transportation Commission and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, will allow WattEV to further expand its growing network of electric truck stops into Northern California and Oregon. The infrastructure grants follow the recent opening of an electric truck charging depot in the Port of Long Beach, California. With these new grants, WattEV will build two more charging depots, one solar-powered truck charging depot across Interstate 5 from the air-freight hub adjacent to Sacramento International Airport (SMF) and another for a grid-connected charging depot along Interstate 5 in Salem, Oregon.

The solar-powered depot in Sacramento will be financed with a $34 million federal grant from the California Transportation Commission to build and operate what WattEV says will become the nation’s largest electric charging depot. The charging park will cover 100 acres immediately south of Sacramento International Airport (SMF) on Interstate 5. The idea is to provide charging services for commercial trucks operating throughout the state of California and along the I-5 corridor, which stretches from Mexico to Canada.

Another $6.5 million will flow to WattEV from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to build the 6-acre EV charging depot in Salem. The depot will be located on a grid-connected site in cooperation with Portland General Electric. This is great news for the state of Oregon, which has committed to transitioning to renewable energy sources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

WattEV offers a program designed to meet the unique needs of trucking companies in the electric vehicle space. Called “Electric Truck Fleet as a Service,” the program provides battery-electric trucks and charging infrastructure to trucking companies for a fixed monthly fee. By using this program and building more charging depots along major highways, WattEV is helping to pave the way for a cleaner, greener future.

The grants awarded to WattEV are a significant step in the right direction in building infrastructure for electric vehicles. By building more charging stations along major highways, commercial trucking companies will be able to reduce their carbon footprint and meet emissions standards. We are excited to see more companies, like WattEV, take the initiative to build infrastructure to support electric vehicles and pave the way for a cleaner, more sustainable future.