Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2024 - 3

SPONSORED CONTENT
EV Accelerators
EV Accelerator Interview with Terawatt's Willa Frej
Big rig EVs transporting goods cleanly and quietly along highways and interstates make a compelling argument for consumers to
replace gas-powered passenger cars and trucks with electric power. In 2021, Terawatt began buying up land along major highway
corridors and industrial hubs for infrastructure that takes the pain out of recharging EV truck fleets. EV Accelerator, sponsored by
Keysight, speaks with Willa Frej, Head of Marketing at Terawatt, where she supports the broader revenue organization in building
a recharging pipeline through brand, product, and growth strategies.
EV Accelerator: What's missing in
the fleet charging landscape? How
does Terawatt add value?
Willa Frej: Lack of sufficient charging
infrastructure for passenger
vehicles extends to semi-trucks,
too. The best way to keep an EV
passenger car running is to charge
it at home. If you rely on public
charging, you will run into malfunctioning
chargers and even a lack of
chargers in many regions. Imagine
how much more challenging such
problems are for a vehicle that
weighs tens of thousands of
pounds and requires lots of electricity
and specific machinery and
hardware to get it charged.
EV Accelerator: What are the challenges
in building fleet charging
for heavy-duty trucks?
Frej: Heavy-duty trucks need the same components; space,
power and capital, except each component is many times
larger. Terawatt uses a truck stop-style model with huge parcels
of land. This requires significantly more electricity --
many megawatts per site - than passenger vehicle charging.
We work with chargers that look like passenger vehicle rechargers
but can dispense more power for the trucks. Our
team provides capital expenditures upfront for these fleets so
that they either pay a fixed monthly fee to access charging or
use a refueling station model, where they pay per-kilowatt.
We're also building a team of experts who handle the real
estate, permitting, energy and utility, development and construction.
Before we acquire land, we make sure local utility
companies can provide adequate power. We also consider
whether the facility can use a solar microgrid or battery storage.
We provide a turnkey service to fleets so they don't need
to front these costs for themselves.
Willa Frej
EV Accelerator: What is market adoption like for heavyduty
EVs?
Frej: Whether for an individual or a business, going electric is
an economic decision. A battery-electric semi-truck or a Class
8 truck costs about two to three times more than a diesel
counterpart. There are many awesome government incentive
and grant programs to purchase EV trucks, but the math
doesn't pencil out widely yet. The second piece is that operating
an EV semi isn't the same as operating a diesel truck. It
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
takes up to four hours to fully recharge
a Class 8 EV semi, compared
with maybe 10 minutes for a
diesel fill-up at a truck stop. EV
fleets take much more time to recharge,
and every minute a truck
spends idle equals dollars lost for
the trucking company and its customers.
We work behind the scenes
to maximize EV truck usage without
spending too many idle hours
at base-charging or recharging stations
in the middle of the day.
EV Accelerator: What will it take
for EV truck range to reach longhaul
status?
Frej: A Class 8 semi has about the
same range as a top-of-the-line EV
passenger car, about 270 to 350
miles. Primary use case for most
Class 8 trucks is a short haul, 200
miles per day or less. Vehicle manufacturers continue to develop
batteries with a greater level of range, while charging
hardware manufacturers try to provide faster, more powerful
recharging. That's where Terawatt comes in. We will provide
charging infrastructure outside of major ports, near large rail
lines and rail yards, and along major interstates and highways.
Whether you're going short-haul or long-haul, you will require
a mixture of those different types of charging sites to get EV
trucks into the charging station, charged up quickly and then
back on the roads.
EV Accelerator:How is Terawatt growing its charging network?
Frej: Terawatt has 15 charging sites under development nationwide.
We own land in a variety of states, but given electrification
mandates and trucking company interest, it's
California-focused. We've announced the acquisition of sites
every 150 miles along the I-10 corridor between the ports of
Long Beach/Los Angeles and El Paso, Texas, to provide charging
for fleets as soon as long-haul becomes viable. We're excited
to be expanding our footprint both across California and
major interstates.
For details, go to terawattinfrastructure.com.
Watch the full interview with Willa.
October 2024 3

http://www.terawattinfrastructure.com

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - October 2024

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