WattEV of Long Beach will be building the nation’s largest electric big rig truck charging station next to Sacramento International Airport.
The $34 million electric charging depot will be solar powered and occupy about 100 acres just south of the airport next to Interstate 5, and just a few miles north of Interstate 80.
"We picked our site in Sacramento because of its strategic location next to the Metro Air Park Logistics Center, where more than 10 million square-feet of warehouse space is planned," said WattEV co-founder and CEO Salim Youssefzadeh, in a news release.
Sacramento County and surrounding areas contain one of the largest concentrations of California's goods distribution centers, serving many of the largest shippers in the country, Youssefzadeh said.
WattEV said the Sacramento project is expected to open in the middle or end of 2025, featuring 30 DC fast chargers for cars and 90 high-power CCS-1 direct current cords for medium-duty and heavy-duty commercial electric vehicles and busses. It will also have 18 of the new seven-prong megawatt cords for high-speed charging of heavy duty trucks using the new Megawatt Charging System standard. The megawatt standard, or MCS, can charge a big rig in 20 to 50 minutes. The MCS is supposed to go live as an international standard next year.
Part of the development of this charging station includes the installation of 15.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic on the site and nearby, and it will supplement that energy with 7.2 megawatts of green grid power supplied by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. A megawatt is enough to power more than 750 homes.
WattEV is funding the Sacramento charging depot with a $34 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Trade Corridor Enhancement Program” through the California Transportation Commission.
WattEV was also awarded $6.5 million from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to build a 6-acre EV charging depot in Salem, Oregon, on Interstate 5. That will be grid-connected with Portland General Electric Co. (NYSE: POR), and it is also expected to be opened in 2025.
WattEV previously completed a charging depot for electric commercial trucks at the Port of Long Beach. That station, along with the Sacramento and Salem charging stations, will allow for interstate commerce on trade corridors.
This is the second large truck depot and EV big rig charging station proposed near the airport. Another group bought land this year for a truck EV charging station on the other side of the freeway.
