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Portland General Electric (NYSE: POR) and Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) announced today that they are co-developing a large public charging site for medium and heavy electric trucks. Known as “Electric Island”, it is expected to be the first of its kind in the United States.
Electric Island is now under construction near DTNA’s headquarters on Swan Island in Portland, Oregon. It will support up to nine charging stations with charge levels of up to over 1 megawatt – over four times faster than today’s fastest light vehicle chargers – by spring 2021. Lighter vehicles can also use the charging station.
The site was designed to accommodate up to 5 MW of charging infrastructure. The use of on-site energy storage and advanced load management software could allow additional capacity in the future. The site will initially include chargers rated at 200kW or less from a number of leading equipment manufacturers including, but not limited to: ABB, BTC Power, ChargePoint, Power Electronics and Proterra. We are exploring the future deployment of a charging infrastructure capable of up to 1.5 MW as the technology advances.
DTNA is also enrolled in PGE’s Green Future Impact renewable energy program, which offers large non-residential customers the opportunity to source up to 100% of their electricity from a new wind or solar installation in the Oregon. This will make Electric Island completely rubbish.
Electric trucks are coming
Heavy electric vehicles are really and really coming – like next year. And since Daimler is the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America, of course they need a place to charge their electric trucks.
Electric Island will help accelerate the development, testing and deployment of electric utility vehicles.
Tesla launched its electric truck program in 2017, and they are now expected to go into volume production next year. Tesla received an order for 130 Tesla semi-electric trucks from Walmart Canada in September 2020, and Pride Group Enterprises has booked 150 Tesla electric semi-trailers with the option to increase to 500 trucks in November of this year – possibly his biggest order to date. Tesla’s seedlings are expected to have a range of 500 miles on a single charge.
In 2018, in what could be seen as a response to the launch of Tesla’s trucks, Daimler launched its own group of electric trucks, the E-Mobility Group, to solidify its electric truck strategy. He launched the eCascadia to compete with the Tesla Semi. At 475 kWh, the eCascadia will have a range of up to 250 miles and can be recharged to around 80% in 90 minutes to cover an additional 200 miles. The eCascadia will go into series production in 2022.
In September, Kenworth, one of America’s largest truck manufacturers, launched two new electric trucks with ranges of up to 200 miles. And also in September, Daimler itself unveiled an electric bus fitted with a solid-state battery – perhaps becoming the first production electric vehicle planned with a solid-state battery.
Taking Electrek
Electrek predicted in June that all new trucks will be electric by 2030, in response to California’s new zero-emission truck program, which is also boosting the production and deployment of electric trucks. And the incoming Biden administration says it’s all for electric vehicles.
It is therefore time to rapidly increase these charging stations for large vehicles. It’s great to finally see the ribbon cut symbolically on a real semi-charge terminal.
Photos: Daimler Trucks North America
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