Startups, real estate giants and others developing electric truck charging sites tend to pick locations before being certain they can get electricity in a timely fashion. Startup EV Realty prioritizes having the juice available when it buys a property.
‘Buying by the acre and monetizing by the megawatt’
Patrick Sullivan is like a lot of his peers developing electric infrastructure for fleet charging. He knows how the electric power business works, what it takes to develop and what can frustrate that work. His startup EV Realty begins with sites where electric power is already present.
It’s kind of like exploring for oil.
“The way we’re finding these sites with power is by analyzing down to each individual distribution circuit, to each individual property, [and then] tracking back to each individual substation where the system has latent capacity,” Sullivan told me. “Then we’re acquiring those properties.
“We are buying by the acre and monetizing by the megawatt. You could think of it as sitting on oil. Only we are not just sitting on it. We’re proactively going to build on it.”
The aptly named EV Realty isn’t concerned with immediately taking advantage of that power. It is a real estate developer first and an infrastructure builder second. Its name came from Digital Realty, a major developer of multiclient, power-hungry data centers.
“We are very much doing the same. We’re buying infill industrial property at a competitive price for somebody who might be looking at it for a warehouse or a truck terminal or a storage facility,” Sullivan said. “We’re breaking that cycle between what comes first: the truck or the charger.”
Even having the power available doesn’t make charging a turnkey operation.
“There’s a whole process that any developer needs to take to actually secure that power for themselves,” Sullivan said.
Financial backing and slow growth of electric fleets
There’s no rush to get charging sites for large fleets built because sizable fleets of medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks don’t yet exist.
“The reality is there’s 14,000 electric trucks on the road today in the entire United States,” Sullivan said. “There aren’t 200 trucks at a single location ready for a 10-year services contract.”
EV Realty expects to be ready when the fleets are. It has a joint venture with GreenPoint Partners that makes $200 million available in an equity line of credit for EV Realty to lease properties and develop and manage sites.
“We have the time to transition that real estate with our capital into these powered properties. But we don’t have to show up and say, ‘I’ve got Amazon with 200 trucks. Now, may I build this thing?’”
Starting in Northern California
Its first high-capacity site in Livermore, California — situated between the Port of Oakland and Port of Stockton adjacent to Interstate 580 — will be ready late this year or by early 2025.
(Artist rendering: EV Realty)
“We confirmed that there was a considerable amount of power there, in excess of 10 megawatts,” Sullivan said. “When we acquired the property, we took the proactive steps with the utility to reserve that load. So it is now no longer available on the system.”
Meeting power needs across electric truck classes
The Livermore site is being designed to handle charging needs for a variety of electric vehicles — from Amazon delivery vans to Class 8 battery-electric tractors. Charging rates vary from as little as 25 kilowatts to 600 kW, more than any Class 8 truck can presently handle, except for the Tesla Semi.
“For example, a fleet of 50 delivery vans that drive 75 miles on a single shift does not need to charge at 200 kW,” Sullivan said, explaining that overnight trickle charging at 25 kW would suffice. “During the day, that same stall could be used for a Class 8 tractor on a shift change that needs to go from 20% to 80% [state of charge] in the 40 minutes the driver is [on a break].”
EV Realty sees potential for 20 or more sites nationwide. For now, the focus is on California, where most electric trucks operate. The recently released National Zero Emission Freight Corridor Strategy that identifies charging hubs helps guide the joint venture’s efforts.
“These hubs are basically hundred-mile radiuses around a dozen ports in America,” Sullivan said. “That is exactly our strategy. And that makes sense, because the best Class 8 day cab today travels 238 miles on a charge.”
Proposed reverse split and new shares tank Nikola stock price
The good news for Nikola is that with first-quarter fuel cell truck production topping 40 units, the company is reducing its losses. The bad news is that it needs more money to keep it up. As expected, Nikola announced a shareholder proposal to execute a reverse stock split of 1:10 to 1:30 shares, which would artificially raise the price of Nikola stock and stave off a threatened delisting from the Nasdaq.
Nikola shares had a mini-run of seven sessions of gains, before Chairman Steve Shindler wrote about the proposals in a shareholder letter last week. Then they tanked, losing nearly 30% of their value in the next five days. They traded Thursday at 65 cents.
Reverse split would be followed by another bump in authorized shares
If investors vote for the reverse split — and that is far from certain given the sell-off — Nikola would authorize an additional 130 million shares, capping the number of split-adjusted authorized shares at 1 billion. Nikola has used most of its current 1.6 billion authorized shares to raise capital.
“We are capitalizing on our first-mover advantage and strong industry tailwinds promoting the adoption of zero-emissions vehicles,” Shindler said in the letter. “As we move forward into 2024, we must focus on resetting our financial foundation. We need to eliminate the distraction of delisting and position ourselves to raise capital more effectively.”
followed by increase in authorized shares if the first proposal
passes. (Photo: Nikola)
While Shindler referred to reducing Nikola’s cash burn and getting a better handle on costs, much of the total compensation the company paid last year — $7.11 million — was to proxy-listed executives no longer at the company. Steve Girsky, who took over as CEO after stepping aside as chairman in August, earned just under $8.2 million all-in. A portion of that is earned over several years, a company spokesman said..
Sue me, sue you: Milton pulls his slate of alternative directors
One issue Nikola won’t have to deal with at its annual meeting is a proxy fight over directors. Convicted company founder Trevor Milton pulled his alternate slate after Nikola sued two of the nominees.
“We believe the Company initiated the Arizona Lawsuit to intimidate our nominees and thwart the lawful exercise of stockholder rights,” Milton said in an April 11 statement. “We have therefore decided to withdraw the nomination and pursue alternative methods to hold the directors and officers of the Company accountable, including through the initiation of independent litigation.”
And the beat goes on.
Editor’s note: Corrects spelling of Nikola chairman’s name to Shindler and adds clarification on Girsky’s compensation.
Briefly noted …
Four generations in, Daimler Truck North America hit a seven-figure milestone with the production of its 1 millionth Freightliner Cascadia. Separately, Daimler’s Rizon medium-duty Class 4-5 trucks debuted in Canada.
Teamsters-backed legislation to create local authority over autonomous vehicles passed its first gate in California.
Lion Electric is cutting 120 more jobs amid a stall in implementing Canada’s incentive program for electric buses.
Navistar now has more than 100 dealer locations — 30% of its total dealerships — authorized to sell International MV Series electric trucks and IC battery-powered school buses.
Truck Tech Episode 63: Hyliion trying to make the most of Karno generator technology
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading and watching. Click here to get Truck Tech via email on Fridays. And catch the latest in major events and hear from the top players on “Truck Tech” at 3 p.m. Wednesdays on the FreightWaves YouTube channel.Your feedback and suggestions are always welcome. Write to aadler@freightwaves.com.