San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), along with local and state officials, says there are now four public DC fast chargers at a busy truck stop north of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
While these chargers are designed to provide high-power charging for trucks, delivery vans, buses and other large vehicles, they can also be used to charge passenger cars.
Installed at Truck Net LLC, 8490 Avenida de la Fuente, near the U.S./Mexico border, the 250 kW chargers can provide up to 250 miles per hour of charging for a passenger car. They can charge a typical medium-duty box truck from 20% to 80% in about an hour and full charge from empty to 100% in about two hours.
The Otay Mesa Port of Entry, a commercial border crossing in California, processes nearly 1 million commercial trucks and 5 million privately owned vehicles each year. Idling vehicles waiting to cross the border is a key contributor to air pollution in the San Diego region.
“Reducing air pollution and tailpipe emissions are top priorities for our region and California especially in equity priority communities, and SDG&E is committed to building the infrastructure needed to enable businesses and residents to adopt electric vehicles and other clean technologies,” says SDG&E CEO Caroline Winn.
The chargers are funded by a $200,000 grant through the CEC’s Clean Transportation Program. Now in its 14th year, the program has provided more than $1 billion to alternative fuel and vehicle technology projects. Funding for the program is scheduled to phase out at the end of the year.
SDG&E built the underlying infrastructure tying the chargers to the grid as part of its Power Your Drive for Fleets program. The program connects fleet operators with resources and financial incentives to design and install charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty fleets.
The project helps support Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order that requires sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 and medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to be zero-emission by 2045 where feasible.