California-based heavy-duty electric truck charging infrastructure developer WattEV announced at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo that it is increasing its current fleet of 36 battery-electric trucks to more than 180 by the end of this year.
The increase comes on the heels of WattEV’s expansion of its charging depots to five locations within the past month.
“We’ve been using and testing trucks in our fleet from all the major OEMs,” said WattEV CEO Salim Youssefzadeh, adding that WattEV will be taking delivery of the first new batch of 53 zero-emission trucks in June from TEC Equipment, the dealer for Volvo’s VNR Electric.
“We value our longstanding relationship with TEC Equipment,” Youssefzadeh said, “and have accelerated the delivery of our orders after verifying range and charge rate.”
Chris Thompson, Vice President of Truck Sales at TEC Equipment, said: “As a significant dealer in California and major supplier of electric heavy-duty trucks, we forged an alliance with WattEV in 2021, believing that they will become a leader in electrification of heavy-duty freight. Our delivery to WattEV – along with over 200 electric trucks delivered to prominent fleets across the West Coast – places us among the top suppliers in the rapidly expanding California market.”
Once its fleet is expanded to 89 trucks, WattEV will take delivery of an additional 100 trucks under order from different OEMs, bringing its total fleet capacity to 189 Class 8 battery-electric trucks, which would make it the largest deployment among current electric commercial fleet operators.
WattEV has been leading the industry with the placement of megawatt charging (MCS) at all of its depots. Youssefzadeh said WattEV stands ready to place orders for “thousands” of MCS-capable, Class 8 trucks to meet the demand with energy available from its expanding MCS-capable charging depot network.
“We’re encouraged to see major manufacturers like Tesla stepping forward with future delivery of trucks with Megawatt charging capability,” he said. “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. We developed all of our charging facilities to allow for transitioning from the current CCS charging standard to the new fast MCS charging, in preparation for this evolution.”
Youssefzadeh said the trucks on its platform will be deployed via WattEV’s Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) operations and charged at WattEV’s growing, public, rapid-charge depot network – five open now in California with the world’s largest truck charging depot in Bakersfield featuring MCS chargers, solar power and battery storage.
“We have demonstrated that the infrastructure for heavy-duty truck transport with megawatt charging – and the necessary power – is available today and can be expanded,” Youssefzadeh said. “With the availability of trucks at the right price point with fast-charging capability and necessary range, we’re confident market adoption will increase rapidly.”
