Electric trucking company WattEV has opened its northernmost charging station in Fresno, California, as part of its expansion plans into Northern California, with additional sites planned for the region.

According to a press release issued last week, the opening ceremony held on June 30 marked the station's official addition to the WattEV charging network. The site is now operational, but grid capacity upgrades are still awaiting further progress.

"This project is a milestone for us," said Salim Youssefzadeh, CEO and co-founder of WattEV, in the press release. "Northern California now stands to benefit from the electric freight expansion we have been driving in Southern California."

Long Beach-based WattEV currently operates five charging stations in Southern California, plus one site north of Bakersfield.

WattEV expands electric charging network

Current sites available for electric trucks in the company's network.

WattEV plans to add more charging stations in Northern California, including sites in Oakland, Stockton, and near Sacramento International Airport. Further expansion will extend to Salem, Oregon, and Nevada.

A $13.2 million grant is helping drive this northern expansion. The California Energy Commission allocated the funds in 2024 for the Fresno, Oakland, and Stockton sites. WattEV's plan is to add 70 combined charging system chargers and 14 megawatt-scale chargers. These chargers will be open to the public.

In Fresno, the station is equipped with half of the megawatt-scale chargers from the grant project, along with 15 DC fast-charging spaces. The company noted that dwell times for trucks using the megawatt-scale chargers will not exceed 30 minutes.

The company said in its announcement that the site's deployment was enabled by Pacific Gas and Electric's Flex Connect program, which brought the station online two years earlier than traditional processes would have allowed. Infrastructure upgrade work is scheduled for mid-2028.

WattEV's business model allows customers to lease electric trucks with bundled services. A company spokesperson wrote in an email to Trucking Dive that its fleet includes 75 Class 8 electric trucks and has operated two pre-production Tesla Semi trucks for a year.

WattEV said it expects to receive 50 Tesla Semis later this year. This is part of a 370-truck agreement with Tesla, which is expected to come online next year.