Electric truck stop near Bakersfield gearing up for 31 chargers by January
Kern County’s first all-electric truck stop is on track to open 31 charging stations this year — about half of them to be powered by solar panels on-site, the head of the Long Beach company behind the project announced Thursday. WattEV founder and CEO Salim Youssefzadeh said the 110-acre site 2 miles north of Merle Haggard Drive along Highway 65 will be one of four charging stations operational by the end of this year in Bakersfield, Gardena, Long Beach and San Bernardino. The one along Highway 65 is expected to be the largest, with the most charging capacity, because of the availability of surrounding land. WattEV expects to open more stations next year along Highway 65 and Interstate 5, extending the company’s reach as far north as Sacramento.
The company aims to deliver more than just battery-charging services: Its all-inclusive, trucking-as-a-service business model is designed to reduce carriers’ financial risk by setting a monthly rate for providing and refueling delivery trucks. Youssefzadeh said WattEV has purchased 14 Nikola electric trucks and has 87 Volvos on order to serve customers by January. Trucks not owned by WattEV will also be able to charge up at the station.
How fast the company scales up will be determined on demand for its services, he said — and things look good so far, given distribution centers’ and trucking companies’ environmental and sustainability targets.
“We’re definitely seeing a lot of demand and interest, shippers as well as the carriers,” Youssefzadeh said.
They’re interested in the technology, “but they don’t necessarily want to deal with the unknowns, for the upfront costs of the infrastructure or the truck.”
WattEV expects to offer a kind of valet service at some of its stations: Drivers would drive to the truck stop in their own car, get into a fully charged rig parked at the site, then return later to drop it off for the night and drive home in their own car. The site along Highway 65 is planned to open with 5 megawatts of solar served by a 2-megawatt-hour battery storage system, Youssefzadeh said. Initially, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will provide the property 640 kilowatts of power, to be upgraded to 7 megawatts. Eventually the property will generate and use 25 megawatts of solar power, he said. By year’s end, he said, there are to be 16 360-kilowatt chargers served by PG&E, and 15 240-kilowatt chargers powered by on-site solar. Charging a truck will initially take between two and three hours, he said, until the facility becomes certified on a megawatt-charger, when trucks can be fully charged in 30 minutes.
Next year’s infrastructure expansion is expected to bring more charging sites to Kern County and elsewhere around the valley. Youssefzadeh said additional stations will be added later to serve trucks traveling along Interstate 10 as far as Arizona and Mexico