Construction has begun on the second major charging depot for heavy-duty electric trucks serving the Port of Long Beach.
On May 15, Oakland-based Forum Mobility broke ground on a depot that will contain 44 charging stalls, each capable of fully charging an electric truck in about 90 minutes, depending on the truck’s battery size. The depot, located at 260 Pico Ave., just north of the new Long Beach International Gateway Bridge, is expected to come online this fall. Forum Mobility is leasing the land from the Port of Long Beach.
It is one of eight additional stations that Forum Mobility plans to open during the next two years along freight corridors throughout California, including locations in Compton and the Inland Empire.
“With the support of the Port of Long Beach, the Forum Mobility Harbor depot will provide drayage truckers a turnkey solution for zero emission freight,” Matt LeDucq, Forum Mobility’s chief executive and co-founder, said in the announcement.
When it opens, the Forum Mobility depot will be the largest in operation at the Port of Long Beach, with 19 dual-port charging stations and 6 single-port chargers. When combined with another charging depot also planned for completion by the end of the year, it will bring the total number of electric truck charging stalls at the port to just over 100.
“We are proud to start construction on another project that will help us make dramatic reductions in air emissions and put us on the path toward becoming the world’s first zero-emissions port,” said Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Mario Cordero. “Forum Mobility’s new charging depot is another way we are helping truck drivers make the switch from diesel-fueled vehicles to electric vehicles.”
Currently, only one major truck charging depot is in operation at the port. The depot, built by Long Beach-based WattEV, opened last summer next to the Pier A terminal. That station, which cost roughly $9 million to develop, features 13 dual-cord 360 kilowatt chargers with the ability to charge 26 trucks concurrently with 5 megawatts of power.
There is another truck-charging depot in operation at the port, but that one only has two stalls.
The other electric truck charging depot slated to open by the end of this year at the Port of Long Beach is to be built by a joint venture of Reston, Virginia-based Electrify America and Rialto-based 4Gen Logistics. It will contain 30 charging stalls and will be located at 200 Pier S Ave.
All these charging depots are a key part of the port’s plan to achieve a goal of net-zero-emission operations for drayage trucks by 2035.
“This new charging depot will help deliver the infrastructure needed for heavy-duty trucking to shift from diesel fuel to zero-emissions and achieve our Clean Air Action Plan goal of 100% zero-emissions drayage operations by 2035,” said Long Beach Harbor Commission President Bobby Olvera.
Another component of this plan is assistance for truck owner-operators to convert to electric trucks. The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are partnering with Calstart, a Pasadena-based industry group seeking to advance zero-emission transportation, and the California Air Resources Board to make $60 million available for vouchers for truck owners to purchase zero-emission trucks operating within the San Pedro Bay ports complex.
Under this program, trucking fleets with up to 20 vehicles can receive up to $436,000 for a battery-electric truck, and up to $676,000 for a hydrogen fuel cell truck in incentives. The funds come from the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Incentive Project.
