EV Realty announced Thursday it has secured $75 million in growth equity from private equity investor NGP to scale its portfolio of commercial fleet charging hubs. The company also broke ground on its first large-scale project in San Bernardino, Calif., featuring 76 DC fast-charging stalls with 9.9 MW of grid capacity that can serve more than 200 Class 8 trucks daily.
“What we’ve focused on from the start is trying to address the barrier that we think really inhibits this adoption for the fleets that want to adopt, which is access to large amounts of power and a scalable solution,” said Patrick Sullivan, CEO of EV Realty, in an interview with FreightWaves.
The San Bernardino facility is strategically located in what Sullivan calls the gateway city to Southern California’s freight ecosystem. The site is positioned just two miles from the BNSF intermodal facility, with approximately 60 million square feet of industrial and distribution warehousing space and nearly 4,000 Class 8 trucks operating daily within five miles.
The location was selected using proprietary data science tools that mapped distribution power systems to identify optimal sites with available grid capacity.
“When we started the company, we built a set of proprietary data science tools—now a full software program—which at this point is probably a couple hundred different data sets, but it started with full mapping of the distribution power system in Southern California,” Sullivan said. This approach allows the company to identify areas with adequate power capacity near critical freight infrastructure.
The San Bernardino facility will be the largest grid-connected charging project in the country, with no backup generation required due to the ample grid capacity identified through EV Realty’s site selection process.
The project has received funding support from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and was selected for a conditional award from the EnergIIZE Commercial Vehicles Project, funded by the California Energy Commission.
The company’s business model focuses on private, dedicated facilities for commercial fleets rather than public truck stops. Customers typically sign multi-year contracts for dedicated portions of the property, with EV Realty providing full maintenance of both chargers and facilities.
“If a truck’s not moving, they’re not making money, and a truck that’s sitting still or has to wait for charging or has to go through a clumsy reservation or has to use a credit card, or all those things add friction. And for any company in my space to any fleet in my space, to make the switch, it has to be easy. It has to be able to let them do the same for less money or more for the same money, and any point of friction you add, especially at the driver level, is a real challenge,” Sullivan added.
Sullivan maintains that the long-term trend toward fleet electrification remains strong, particularly where the economics make sense.
“Despite the challenges, the long-term trend toward fleet electrification is unmistakable,” Sullivan noted, emphasizing that the economics are already working for some customers. “We’re seeing real customers moving real freight, not just potato chips, winning freight at market rates and operating at a positive margin to their competitors.”
This announcement builds on EV Realty’s recent strategic moves, including a partnership with Prologis to streamline fleet charging access across networks and the acquisition of assets from charging provider Gage Zero. The San Bernardino facility is scheduled to open later this year, marking a significant milestone in EV Realty’s expansion of its Powered Properties® portfolio.
The post EV Realty secures $75 million investment from NGP for charging expansion appeared first on FreightWaves.
