On the heels of opening the nation's largest public charging depot for electric commercial trucks at the Port of Long Beach, WattEV announced Monday it has secured $40.5 million in grants to further expand its growing network of electric truck stops into northern California and Oregon.
WattEV has been awarded two separate grants: one for a solar-powered truck charging depot across Interstate 5 from the airfreight hub adjacent to Sacramento International Airport, and another for a grid-connected charging depot along Interstate 5 in Salem, Ore.
WattEV has secured a $34 million federal grant through the California Transportation Commission to build and operate what will become the nation's largest electric charging depot on more than 100 acres of land immediately south of Sacramento International Airport (SMF) on Interstate 5.
The SMF project is expected to open in mid- to late-2025 with 15.6 MW of solar power supplemented by 7.2 MW of grid power supplied by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Watt EV says.
[RELATED: Nation's largest truck charging station opens at Port of Long Beach]
The SMF depot will have 30 DC fast chargers for passenger vehicles, 90 high-power CCS-1 cords for medium- and heavy-duty commercial electric vehicles, and 18 megawatt cords for pass-through charging of heavy-duty trucks using the upcoming Megawatt Charging Standard (MCS).
"We're proud to partner with WattEV as they continue to advance transition of U.S. trucking transport to zero emissions," says Cindy Nichol, director of Sacramento County Department of Airports. "Sacramento International Airport's proximity to one of largest goods distribution centers in the state makes this an ideal location to serve California's 'electric highway.'"
WattEV was also awarded $6.5 million from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to build a 6-acre EV charging depot. The Salem, Ore., site will be grid-connected in cooperation with Portland General Electric.
Planning for the Salem electric truck stop includes 30 CCS 240 KW chargers and six MCS 1200 KW chargers. It's expected to open in 2025 as well, the company says.
"These grant awards will allow us to meet our plans to expand our network of electric-truck charging depots from the Mexican border to Portland, Oregon, via Interstate 5, on what government planners and industry stakeholders are calling the 'electric highway,'" says WattEV co-Founder and CEO Salim Youssefzadeh.
The grant for the SMF project comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Trade Corridor Enhancement Program," which distributes funding through state transportation agencies, WattEV says.
"We're building out the West Coast corridor while also reaching eastward along the I-10 toward Arizona and Texas and, eventually, to the East Coast," Youssefzadeh says. "To expand the WattEV network, we'll match our grants with private capital to fund this massive infrastructure buildout."
