The Port of Long Beach would be the southern hub of WattEV’s planned heavy-duty electric truck charging network.
WattEV and the Port of Long Beach (POLB) are on track to bring heavy-duty charging to Southern California with the development of charging infrastructure for battery-electric trucks within the port complex.
The charging facility, which was announced at the 2022 ACT Expo, would serve WattEV’s fleet of battery-electric trucks as well as other carriers committed to electrifying trucking operations to and from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
The ports host tens of thousands of diesel trucks annually, more than 25% of which are older than 10 years. Both ports have been setting clean air goals for nearly two decades.
“This charging station represents the southern anchor of our Electric Highway, serving heavy transport corridors in Southern California as well as north-bound freight through the San Joaquin Valley,” said Salim Youssefzadeh, CEO of WattEV. “Sacramento is the northern anchor for our infrastructure development, and we’re planning two more charging plazas between there and Long Beach.”
Transitioning the drayage truck fleet serving the ports to zero emissions by 2035 is a central tenet of the Clean Air Action Plan, the shipping industry’s most aggressive effort to reduce the environmental impacts of goods movement.
“Our Clean Air Action Plan calls for bold, aggressive measures to reduce port emissions and their impact on neighboring communities, without sacrificing economic efficiency and jobs,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero. “Our quest is not about reducing emissions, but about eliminating emissions. Projects such as this are an important part of the Port of Long Beach achieving its clean-air goals and honoring our commitment to be a good neighbor and environmental steward.”
Phasing out older, more polluting trucks has been key to clean air improvements at the ports since the original Clean Truck Program was launched in 2008. Diesel emissions from trucks have been cut by as much as 97% compared to 2005 levels. Yet trucks remain the ports’ largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and the second highest source of NOx. The combined emissions create unhealthy air quality and regional smog formation in the surrounding disadvantaged communities, which are predominantly comprised of lower income residents and people of color.
WattEV’s POLB e-truck public charging plaza — designed for everyday use by drayage operators and longer-haul fleets — will initially feature 26 charging bays using Combined Charging System connectors to provide power at up to 360 kilowatts. With the availability of trucks with megawatt charging capability, eight more e-truck bays are planned for future expansion at the POLB charging plaza, featuring the faster, higher-power Megawatt Charging System (MCS), rated for charging at up to 1.2 megawatts. The MCS is expected to become the worldwide standard for fast-charging of medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles.
WattEV has set a goal of putting 12,000 battery-electric heavy-duty trucks on the road with a supporting infrastructure by 2030. The company will be operating its own fleet of branded electric trucks for its Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) program as well as providing infrastructure for other fleets. To that end, WattEV is actively building additional electric truck charging stations in Bakersfield, Gardena, San Bernardino, and expects to break ground in Sacramento at a solar-powered facility on U.S. Interstate 5 across from the Sacramento International Airport air freight hub.
The charging network and WattEV’s heavy-duty battery-electric truck fleet will facilitate the zero-emission transport of goods to and from air and ocean ports and large warehouses in the Inland Empire, the Sacramento region, and the agricultural sectors of the vast San Joaquin Valley.
“We’re on schedule to build out electric truck stops from the ports to Southern California warehouses and up I-5 and Highway 99 to Sacramento, and east along the I-10 and I-15 to Barstow, Blythe and neighboring states, and beyond,” said Youssefzadeh.
