The Value of Offsite Backup Charging for Your Heavy Duty EV Fleet

We speak to fleets every day that are building, or already have built, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure on their own properties to support their heavy duty fleet charging needs. And we get it — the convenience of charging at the same place where you domicile vehicles is a huge plus.

Yet we’ve also seen that onsite charging alone limits the use cases for these trucks — and fails to account for unforeseen issues en-route that a risk-free offsite complement can mitigate.

Terawatt and others are building EV charging sites within major industrial hubs and along major trucking lanes. We won’t go into all of the ways fleets can make use of these offsite facilities (check out this blog post to learn more) — instead, we want to focus on why these types of sites are valuable when you’re in a pinch. 

An EV’s mileage range can still be slightly unpredictable due to a variety of factors (payload weight, use of heating or air conditioning, breaking patterns, etc.). It’s not unusual for a driver to regularly complete the same route and one day unexpectedly find themselves with a dwindling battery. In these situations, it’s crucial to have a solution in place that can help sustain the truck’s battery, allowing it to complete its route/return to base without too much of a disruption.

We recently received a call from a driver in the Los Angeles area. His battery somehow got to 10%, so he asked to stop at our pilot site in Commerce for a 30-minute charge. After that, he resumed his route and returned the truck to the terminal, where it charged overnight. Otherwise, had his truck died en route, they would have had to tow it back to base. 

That’s where Terawatt’s sites come in. Your driver can quickly make a charging reservation, stop by for a quick top-up charge, and be on his or her way. 

If you’re in the process of building out your own charging infrastructure, we recommend you hedge your bets — not to mention think about how a daily 30-minute offsite charge could double your EV truck’s usage (more on that here). Please don’t hesitate to reach out to discuss.