By Joseph White
DETROIT (Reuters) – Terawatt Infrastructure will develop a U.S. network of charging stations for medium and heavy trucks along Interstate 10 between Los Angeles and El Paso, Texas, the electric vehicle charging startup said on Thursday, anticipating a significant increase in electric truck traffic along that largely desert corridor.
Terawatt said in September it had raised more than $1 billion from investors to begin building large-scale charging centers for commercial vehicle fleets.
Terawatt Chief Executive Neha Palmer said in an interview that capital and commitments from large trucking fleets and other potential customers have facilitated a plan to install about seven commercial charging stations along the roughly 800-mile route from the Port of Los Angeles to El Paso in West Texas.
Terawatt is aiming to have charging stations fully running by 2024, Palmer said. “The trucks will come faster than the infrastructure is ready,” she added.
Terawatt plans stations that could accommodate hundreds of trucks a day and offer amenities for waiting drivers, Palmer said. Charging stations capable of serving a medium or heavy-duty truck will require “significant investment” to bring adequate electric power to the site, Palmer said.
Palmer declined to name customers that could use Terawatt’s charging stations. “We’ll see a very quick adoption curve,” she said.
Palmer said Terawatt will seek federal funding made available in the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act for electric vehicle charging development.
(Reporting By Joe White; Editing by Josie Kao)
