Electric commercial trucks are beginning to take off. And that advancement poses new challenges for operators working on how to build charging infrastructure for their growing EV fleet.
Given the constraints of the grid, that’s not necessarily possible. EV trucks are one of several energy users currently looking for space in an increasingly busy electric grid. McKinsey said that demand is low today, but now only a few thousand units are in operation, but more than half of the fleet pilots the technology.
One startup, EV Realty, is hoping to fill in the blanks by finding free space on the grid and developing those properties to charge hubs that can serve multiple fleets. The company operates five charging hubs in California. All are near warehouses, ports and other industrial properties.
EV Realty recently raised $75 million to build additional charging hubs throughout California. Private Equity Investor NGP led the round by the management team at EV Realty.
The funding will help build a new hub in California, including a 76-stole fast charging site in San Bernardino, California. The site has four “pull-through” stalls with megawatt charging system plugs that allow semi-tocks to be refilled without looking at the trailer. When open, the hub should be able to charge over 200 Class 8 trucks per day.
The company is modelled on Digital Realty, a real estate investment trust that builds and operates data centers. “This was a new kind of infrastructure class for real estate,” Patrick Sullivan, co-founder and CEO of EV Realty, told TechCrunch. EV Realty is “the exact same concept,” he added.
EV Realty found the site using in-house software that maps electrical grids, vehicle density, traffic patterns, real estate use, and customer potential.
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The company is looking for free space on the grid, just like it does with data centers. But the footprint of the charging hub offers more options, both in terms of planting area and megawatts, Sullivan said. “They are looking for hundreds of megawatts, and we are looking for dozens of megawatts,” he said.
While some fleets are hesitant to adopt electric trucks, Sullivan is seeing a lot of demand in the near future. “Frankly, there’s more interest from customers who have switched over now. They see the opportunity and want to do more.”
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