WattEV today opened its fourth electric truck charging depot, this one in Bakersfield, California.
The WattEV Bakersfield depot will connect the San Joaquin Valley’s vast agricultural sector and growing warehousing complexes to California’s seaports and inland destinations. The 119-acre site is designed, owned, and operated by WattEV. This is the world’s first electric truck stop featuring a solar-powered microgrid with a battery energy storage system (BESS), and is capable of megawatt rapid charging (MCS).
This state-of-the art station features 16 dual-cord 360kW chargers connected to the grid and 15 single-cord 240kW CCS chargers, plus three MCS 1,200kW rapid chargers, drawing power from the site’s solar array. Significantly, the MCS chargers will bring down truck charging “dwell time” from hours to less than 30 minutes.
“Reducing the charge time to less than 30 minutes for a 300-mile range will be a game-changer in the adoption of electric trucks,” Youssefzadeh said. “We developed all of our charging facilities to allow for the transition from the current CCS charging standard to the new, faster MCS charging, in preparation for this evolution,” said WattEV CEO Salim Youssefzadeh.
With its signature black, green and white “WattEV” brand, the depot is located near the junction of busy highways CA-99 at CA-65. It will serve heavy-duty electric trucks with routes connecting the San Joaquin Valley’s vast agricultural sector and growing distribution warehouse region to the state’s seaports and inland destinations throughout Southern California and the West.
The WattEV Bakersfield charge depot features amenities such as restrooms and a commercial center with lease space available for food and merchandise vendors.
In support of its mission to accelerate the transition to zero-emission transport solutions, this is the third new electric truck charging depot WattEV has opened in California in the past month, adding to the Port of Long Beach station that started operation in July 2023. Other open locations include San Bernardino and Gardena. All future WattEV depots will include MCS charging.
WattEV has spent the past three years building out the first freight corridors in the nation for public-access, MHD electric vehicle charging. This includes large-scale solar-powered charging depots in the permitting stages in Blythe (on Interstate 10) and Sacramento, Gustine and Taft Highway (on Interstate 5) all in California, as well as Salem, Oregon, and Seattle-Tacoma, Washington (on Interstate 5).
Along with the Bakersfield depot, WattEV is completing the electrification of the CA-99 freight corridor connecting the nation’s most productive agricultural region in the San Joaquin Valley to major ports, with more depots planned in Fresno, Stockton and Oakland.
To assist shippers and fleet operators with the transition to zero-emission truck transport, WattEV offers an innovative electric Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) model that provides fleets or individual operators with access to Class 8 battery-electric trucks, reliable maintenance support, insurance, and charging across WattEV’s network, all at a total cost of operation that is on par with diesel trucks.
WattEV received some $5 million in grant funding from the California Energy Commission to build the WattEV Bakersfield charging depot, with future support from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to expand the capacity.
The APCD says mobile sources of emissions account for the single largest source of ozone and PM2.5 forming NOx, toxic diesel particulate matter, and greenhouse gas emissions in the Valley. Reducing emissions from these mobile sources, including both heavy-duty and light duty vehicles, is a critical component of the District’s overall strategy to attain stringent health-based federal air quality standards. With 45% of the truck traffic in California occurring in the San Joaquin Valley, projects such as these are critical in improving air quality in the region.
