Schneider National announced the completion of an electric charging depot at its South El Monte Intermodal Operations Center in Southern California. The depot will power its battery electric truck (BET) fleet, which plan to include nearly 100 Freightliner eCascadias by year’s end. The charging site is said to be over half the size of a football field, featuring 16 350 kW dual-corded dispensers, allowing the carrier to charge 32 trucks simultaneously. The eCascadias are said to be able to achieve an 80% charge within 90 minutes.
The South El Monte site was funded through the Joint Electric Truck Scaling Initiative (JETSI), a project funded by state and local agencies to increase the number of zero emission heavy-duty trucks on the roads, the company noted.
Funding for 50 of Schneider’s 92 BETs was made possible by JETSI, the first battery electric truck project jointly funded by the California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission, which together awarded the project $27 million, according to Schneider. Additional funding was provided by South Coast Air Quality Management District, Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee, the Port of Los Angeles and Southern California Edison. The JETSI project is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the recent press release, out of the additional 42 trucks outside JETSI, five are jointly funded by the U.S. EPA FY18 Targeted Airshed Grant and Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Program (HVIP), seven are funded by the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, and 30 trucks are funded by HVIP.
Schneider worked alongside Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) as the eCascadia evolved, piloting a truck for six months in 2019-2020 through Freightliner’s Customer Experience fleet, and according to the company, feedback from Schneider drivers and the equipment team led to the production of the BET found in the company’s fleet today.
