TravelCenters of America (TA), part of the bp portfolio, broke ground on one of the nation’s first publicly accessible medium- and heavy-duty electric truck charging stations at its Ontario, California, travel center.
- bp is No. 7 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by total number of company-owned stores.
The charging station, a pilot project in collaboration with the California Energy Commission, supports delivery of bp’s convenience and EV charging strategy.
The truck charging station will have four 400-kilowatt chargers that the company expects to open in early 2025, with an additional 1-megawatt charger to open in 2026. It will provide direct current (DC) ultra-fast charging for up to five trucks simultaneously.
The location will also act as an innovation site, the company said, allowing bp to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of new technologies, including deploying one of the first available megawatt charger systems, an integrated microgrid generating reliable, renewable power from 250 kilowatts of canopy-mounted solar panels and a battery energy storage system for up to 1 megawatt hour of power.
“This truck charging station is strategically located at the intersection of two of the nation’s busiest highway interstates and is a prime location to serve early-adopter electric truck fleet operators,” said Debi Boffa, CEO of TA. “We are proud to take a leading role in bringing this infrastructure to our fleet customers and other professional drivers.”
TA, the California Energy Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute started designs for building an electric truck charging station at the TA location in 2021. The project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of public-access charging for battery-electric heavy-duty trucks.
“Charging for trucks and passenger cars at TravelCenters of America locations is a key part of bp pulse’s strategy to bring ultra-fast EV charging to major metros and along key highway corridors across the U.S.,” said Sujay Sharma, CEO of bp pulse Americas. “This project further demonstrates bp pulse and TA’s commitment to support fleet customers and is just the beginning of our endeavors in truck charging to build fast and reliable charging infrastructure to support our EV drivers.”
Together with bp pulse, TA is planning to develop projects at other Southern California locations while also looking at developing other corridors in the U.S. to support demand for EV truck charging.
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