“Advance Clean Fleets is mandating this transition,” said Matt LeDucq, CEO of Forum Mobility, the company building out the infrastructure, referring to California’s new environmental requirement that drayage fleets be fully electric by 2035.
“We’re going to have thousands of trucks, and they’re all going to need a place to charge,” LeDucq added. “As many charging facilities as companies like ours can bring online over the next coming years are going to help alleviate a lot of that charging anxiety that these carriers and these trucking companies have.”
Forum Mobility is leading the development of the Greenville Community Charging Depot, a charging facility in the East Bay city of Livermore capable of charging 96 trucks with 100 percent renewable energy. The project is a partnership with East Bay Community Energy and Pacific Gas & Electric, as well as city partners from Livermore and Tracy. It is one of several heavy-duty charging depots Forum Mobility is developing on the West Coast.
The facility will include slower overnight charging, as well as what officials term “opportunity charging,” which is seen as a midday rapid charging.
Charging infrastructure to support heavy-duty vehicles like drayage trucks, city buses and other similar vehicles will be needed across California as the state ramps up its transition to EVs. The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) used a California Energy Commission grant to explore the charging infrastructure needs for zero-emission drayage trucks in Los Angeles. The study sought to explore “where in the region is the grid string enough to support these?” said Jack Symington, senior program manager for transportation at LACI.
“What is the scale of capital investment needed to get to 40 percent by 2028, and 100 percent by 2035?” said Symington, speaking on a panel discussion at the recent Forth Roadmap Conference in Portland, Ore.
The LACI study examined data on about 2,000 trucks for eight months of truck activity to understand where the trucks are stationary for certain periods which could allow for charging. It then used resources from utilities to understand existing electric capacities for the region. All of this data was shared with community groups.
“We identified four facilities that seemed eager to move forward with a site assessment,” said Symington.
Similarly, Forum Mobility quickly understood the travel patterns of the some 7,000 trucks a day serving the Port of Oakland. Many of those trucks are traveling inland along Interstate 580, making this route an ideal location for charging. The area is also well served by wind-generated electric power perched above the Altamont Pass.
“As we think about building a comprehensive network that can serve thousands of trucks in the Port of Oakland area, that site at the base of the Altamont [Pass] is a critical site,” said LeDucq. “It’s one of several sites we’re developing along that route. It’s the site that we’ve had the best luck progressing and developing.”
LeDucq wasn’t yet ready to discuss pricing for the fleets using the charging depot, but said, “Our goal is always to compete and beat the cost of diesel. We’re really optimistic about this site. And I think with the partnership with EBCE providing us with a 10-year loan, everything helps in this transition.”
“We need to make sure that the trucking companies are not out money for having made this switch,” he added.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect project cost figures. The story has since been adjusted.
