WattEV to add another 150+ EV trucks by end of year

At the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo, WattEV said that it is increasing its current fleet of 36 battery-electric trucks to more than 180 by the end of this year. The increase comes on the heels of WattEV’s expansion of its charging depots to five locations within the past month.

“We’ve been using and testing trucks in our fleet from all the major OEMs,” said WattEV CEO Salim Youssefzadeh, adding that WattEV will be taking delivery of the first new batch of 53 zero-emission trucks this month from TEC Equipment, the dealer for Volvo’s VNR Electric.

“We value our longstanding relationship with TEC Equipment,” Youssefzadeh continued, “and have accelerated the delivery of our orders after verifying range and charge rate.”

“As a significant dealer in California and a major supplier of electric heavy-duty trucks, we allied with WattEV in 2021, believing that they will become a leader in the electrification of heavy-duty freight,” Chris Thompson, VP of truck sales at TEC Equipment, said. “Our delivery to WattEV – along with over 200 electric trucks delivered to prominent fleets across the West Coast – places us among the top suppliers in the rapidly expanding California market.”

Once its fleet is expanded to 89 trucks, WattEV said it will take delivery of an additional 100 trucks under order from different OEMs, bringing its total fleet capacity to 189 Class 8 battery-electric trucks.

Youssefzadeh said WattEV is ready to place orders for “thousands” of MCS-capable, Class 8 trucks to meet the demand with energy available from its expanding MCS-capable charging depot network.

He said the trucks on its platform will be deployed via WattEV’s Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) operations and charged at WattEV’s growing, public, rapid-charge depot network – five open now in Bakersfield, CA featuring MCS chargers, solar power and battery storage.

In a recent IDTechEx report, "Advanced Li-ion Battery Technologies 2024-2034: Technologies, Players, Forecasts," the company included an analysis of the latest in silicon anode developments. According to the report, maximizing energy density has been one key area of focus in electric vehicle battery development. Optimizations in cell and battery pack designs, alongside the use of higher nickel NMC and NCA cathodes, have led to steady improvement in battery energy density over the past 10-15 years. The energy density limit from current design and material iterations has largely been maximized. However, a promising contender is emerging on the horizon to offer a step-change improvement – silicon. IDTechEx forecasts the market for silicon anode material for Li-ion batteries will exceed $24 billion by 2034.