Volvo Trucks North America is joining forces with Volvo Financial Services, Volvo Technology of America, Shell Recharge Solutions, TEC Equipment, Affinity Truck Center, and Western Truck Center to develop a publicly accessible medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle (MHD EV) charging network that connects several of California’s largest metropolitan areas.
With an award from the California Energy Commission (CEC) of $2 million under BESTFIT, the “Electrified Charging Corridor Project” will address key barriers to long-range MHD EV deployments and accelerate widespread adoption, Volvo Trucks says. The project will get underway this year, with all five stations anticipated to be online by the end of 2023, the company says.
During the next 18 months, the project will deploy high-powered chargers at several existing Volvo Trucks dealership locations in Central and Northern California, including TEC Equipment Oakland, TEC Equipment Dixon, Western Truck Center in Stockton, and Affinity Truck Centers in Fresno and Bakersfield. They will serve as an extension to chargers already available at the TEC Fontana and TEC La Mirada locations in Southern California. With publicly accessible charging stations strategically located at convenient intervals, fleets utilizing battery-electric trucks will be able to complete zero-tailpipe emissions routes between Southern, Central, and Northern California, the company says.
The Electrified Charging Corridor Project has the goal of enabling convenient charging for:
- Small business fleets that want to avoid making major financial investments in large-scale charging infrastructure at their site;
- Fleets looking to pilot an electric vehicle through rental and short-term lease opportunities; and
- Fleets that need an OEM-neutral location to “opportunity charge” along their route.
The CEC’s BESTFIT Charging Solutions program funds projects that demonstrate transformative technology solutions and work to accelerate the successful commercial deployment of electric vehicle charging for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty applications, the company says.
