WattEv finishes Construction on Truck EV Chargers at Port of Long Beach

May 8, 2023
WattEV’s e-truck charging plaza features 26 charging bays that use combined charging system (CCS) connectors, providing power at up to 360 kW. The CCS system is the current charging standard for heavy-duty electric trucks

WattEV has completed the construction of a public truck charging station at the Port of Long Beach in California.

According to the company, it is the largest public truck charging station in the U.S. and is scheduled to open for public use in the week of May 15. Located adjacent to the Pier-A terminal in the Port of Long Beach, the charging depot is designed to serve heavy-duty electric trucks with routes connecting to inland destinations throughout Southern California.

WattEV’s e-truck charging plaza features 26 charging bays that use combined charging system (CCS) connectors, providing power at up to 360 kW. The CCS system is the current charging standard for heavy-duty electric trucks, while faster charging systems are under development.

The public truck charging station is many of many decarbonization projects happening at the Port of Long Beach, one of the world's busiest such ports. Late last year, the U.S. Department of Energy approved Port of Long Beach for about $30 million in grants to support electrification cargo handling equipment which is currently diesel powered. Contractor SSA Marine also completed electrification of gantry cranes at the Pier J terminal.

WattEV notes that the facility will support the first batch of 14 Nikola electric trucks that will operate on its zero-emission fleet-transportation platform. The fleet is expected to expand to over 100 electric trucks by the end of 2023, with the opening of additional charging depots in Southern California.

The new charging depot aims to enable transporters to transition to zero-emission trucking and help the combined ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles achieve their goal of having 100-percent zero-emission trucks serving the ports by 2035. The ports have approximately 20,000 trucks in their registries, and more than 25 percent of them are over 10 years old.

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WattEV plans to open more charging depots in California, including warehouse districts in nearby Gardena and inland near San Bernardino. The company says it also plans to incrementally connect the charging station with all the major freight routes throughout California, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada, serving electric truck operations throughout the San Pedro Bay ports complex.

Additionally, WattEV says it plans to add four more pass-through e-truck bays at the Port of Long Beach charging plaza when trucks with megawatt charging capability become available. These bays will use the megawatt charging system (MCS), which is designed to provide faster and higher-power charging and can deliver up to 1.2 MW of power.

According to the company, the MCS is expected to become the worldwide standard for fast charging of medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, reducing typical charge sessions to less than 30 minutes. 

About the Author

EnergyTech Staff

Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

He can be reached at [email protected]

EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.