Heavy-duty electric trucks servicing San Pedro Bay port terminals can now charge for free at the Port of Long Beach, which announced it has opened the first two public charging stations in the nation for the vehicles.
The Port has partnered with EV Connect, a provider of charge-management solutions for electric vehicles, to provide the stations at the Clean Truck Program Terminal Access Center.
Southern California will need a network of thousands of heavy-duty charging stations, not only at the ports but all around the region, as society moves to renewable energy to fight climate change
said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero.
In addition, Long Beach Harbor Commission President Sharon L. Weissman, stated that “step-by-step, we are making progress toward meeting the goals of both zero-emissions terminal operations by 2030 and zero-emissions trucking by 2035.”
The Port of Long Beach has set a goal of all zero-emissions cargo-handling equipment by 2030 and a zero-emissions drayage truck fleet by 2035. About 17% of the cargo-handling equipment at the Port is electric powered, the largest such fleet in the United States.
As a signal of zero-emissions progress, in September, the Port announced that a trucking company partner will convert to fully zero emissions by 2025 – 10 years before the 2035 goal. Read more about the project here.
Last month, the Port also announced it will receive a $30.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to deploy the nation’s largest fleet of manually operated, zero-emissions cargo handling equipment at a single marine terminal.
Compared to 2005, the year before the Clean Air Action Plan was adopted, the Port of Long Beach has reduced emissions of diesel particulate matter by 88%, nitrogen oxides by 49%, and sulfur oxides by 96%.