Pilot Flying J, the largest chain of truck stops (excuse me, “travel centers”) in North America, features EV charging stations at a steadily growing number of its locations. When I spoke with electric truck expert Rustam Kocher a few weeks ago (read the full interview in the latest print issue of Charged), we agreed that this is a fine thing. But electric trucks have very different needs from passenger EVs. Are any of the major travel center chains offering truck charging?
At that time, the answer appeared to be no, but that has changed. Pilot just opened its first Tesla Megacharger site at a Pilot travel center in Ellabell, Georgia, and several more truck charging sites are on the way.
Pilot #1390 in Ellabell features six heavy-duty charging stalls. Twelve more heavy-duty charging locations are under construction, and three are expected to come online soon, in Tulare, California, Fort Stockton, Texas and North Las Vegas, Nevada. Each location will feature four to eight charging stalls powered by Tesla’s V4 cabinet technology. Each charger can deliver up to 1.2 megawatts of power.
Pilot and Tesla plan to develop a network of Tesla Megachargers at select Pilot locations along I-5, I-10 and other major freight corridors in California, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada and Texas.
“Pilot is proud to bring heavy-duty charging directly to key trucking routes and pair it with the services and amenities drivers rely on,” said Shannon Sturgil, Senior VP of Alternative Fuels at Pilot. “With these initial locations, we’re making fleet electrification a more accessible option for long-haul transportation.”
Source: Pilot
