Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) and Portland General Electric (PGE) announced a joint project “Electric Island," which is the first of its kind public charging site for medium- and heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles in the U.S.

The plan is to build a large DC fast charging station for trucks on Swan Island in Portland, near DTNA headquarters to help accelerate the development, testing and deployment of charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles. The station will be equipped with nine individual chargers and the peak power output will exceed one megawatt (1,000 kW).

At this point, we don't know whether it will be slightly above 1 MW, or maybe it has the potential to substantially exceed 1 MW per vehicle. CharIN works to deliver power beyond 1 MW, actually more than 2 MW, while DTNA would like to see even 3 MW.

Separately, we don't know what kind of plug will be used, as the CCS Combo plug is not rated for MW power. The top models can handle 500 A at 1,000 V, which is 500 kW (see HUBER+SUHNER RADOX HPC500 or ITT Cannon DC fast charging plug).

Anyway, the site is under construction now and should be ready by Spring 2021. In the images, we can see that it's a proper site for large and long vehicles. In the future there will also be an energy storage system, solar installation and technology showcase building:

"Electric Island is designed to inform both DTNA’s work in commercial electric vehicle development and PGE’s work in meeting customer charging needs. The project will inform each company’s efforts by studying the future of heavy-duty charging, including:

• Use of vehicle chargers featuring power delivery of up to over one megawatt (over 4 times faster than today’s fastest light-duty vehicle chargers), enabling PGE and DTNA to develop best practices for cost-effective future deployments;

• Integration of heavy-duty charging technology into PGE’s Smart Grid, such as vehicle-to-grid technologies, second-life use of Daimler’s battery packs, and onsite energy generation; and

• Testing information technology opportunities like fleet and energy management by captive solutions and services."

In North America, DTNA is represented by the Freightliner brand, which intends to launch two all-electric models: Freightliner eCascadia and Freightliner eM2.

See also

Daimler Electric Trucks & Buses Covered Over 7 Million Km In Customer Hands