Announces $5 million CEC grant to
supplement $6 million in private funding
LONG BEACH, Calif. (Aug. 31, 2021) – WattEV Inc., a company dedicated to
accelerating the heavy-duty trucking industry’s transition to electric drive, announced it
is set to receive a $5 million grant from the California Energy Commission to build the
state’s first solar-powered truck stop dedicated to heavy-duty electric trucks.
Groundbreaking for the project is expected in late October.
The announcement was made at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo 2021
in Long Beach. WattEV, based in El Segundo, Calif., said the CEC is anticipated to
approve the grant on Sept. 8 at its monthly business meeting.
“Our successful private-equity seed funding, in addition to the grant awarded for this
the project, are important milestones in our effort to deploy 12,000 electric heavy-duty
trucks on the road by 2030,” said Salim Youssefzadeh, chief executive officer of
WattEV.
“The electric truck stop in Bakersfield is the first step toward our commitment to help
build the charging infrastructure network necessary to accelerate the heavy-duty
trucking sector’s transition to electric drive,” Youssefzadeh said, “and to get more
heavy-duty electric trucks on the road in California as quickly as possible.”
Partners joining WattEV and the CEC on the Bakersfield electric truck stop project
include the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, Central California
Asthma Collaborative, Greenlots, Power Electronics, and several others.
In addition to the Bakersfield project, WattEV is in the planning stages for similar
projects in San Bernardino and Gardena in Southern California. Both of these electric
truck stops will serve the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach and the
warehouses fed by goods coming through the ports.
To enable these projects and support further expansion, WattEV has raised $6 million in
private equity seed funding led by Canon Equity.
WattEV also has secured purchase incentive vouchers through the California Air
Resources Board’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project
(HVIP), initially for six VNR Electric Class 8 trucks from Volvo Group, and has applied
for 24 more electric truck HVIP vouchers.
All told, WattEV plans to run its own fleet of 30 heavy-duty electric trucks by the end of
2022 to deploy under contract with several Southern California fleet customers.
The first fleet partnership is with Total Transportation Services, Inc. (TTSI), one of the
leading freight transporters making the transition to EV trucks serving the ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach, and with a presence in Bakersfield. TTSI will be offering
electric transport freight services to shippers in Southern California on routes served by
WattEV’s platform.
The partnership between WattEV and TTSI is an initial step toward reducing significantly
emissions of particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon produced by the
thousands of mostly older, diesel Class 8 trucks registered to serve two of the busiest
ports in the nation and the San Joaquin Valley.
To help accelerate the transition to electric goods movement, WattEV is developing an
advanced software platform – trucks-as-a-service (TaaS) – designed specifically for the
use of electric trucks within its network of charging stations on designated routes. The
TaaS platform will help fleets and individual truckers meet the requirements of shippers with
sustainability goals while serving transporters with a viable economic model.
The TaaS platform will offer an all-inclusive, charge-per-mile formula that will enable a
transporter to efficiently and cost-effectively use an electric truck to move goods
normally handled with diesel trucks on the routes selected by shippers committed to
clean air.
Says Youssefzadeh: “We’re delighted to partner with TTSI in the design and rollout of
our TaaS software platform and deployment of our expanding charging network. We
anticipate benefitting from their vast transport experience.”
About WattEV
WattEV’s mission is speeding up the transition of U.S. trucking transport to zero-emission.
It uses a combination of business and technology innovations to create
charging infrastructure and data-driven workflow that provide truckers and fleet
operators the lowest total cost of ownership. WattEV’s goal is to get 12,000 heavy-duty
electric trucks onto California roads by the end of 2030, exceeding existing forecasts.
For further details, please call Michael Coates at (408) 399-9081, email
media@wattev.com, or visit www.WattEV.com.
