Cornelius Vanderbilt helped build the railroad network in the 1800s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower commissioned the National Highway System in the 1900s, and Neha Palmer is working to usher in the next “once-in-a-century transition” in transportation: an electrified charging network.
Palmer cofounded TeraWatt Infrastructure in 2021 so that heavy-duty freight vehicles, which delivered more than 70% of the $14.5 trillion in goods transported within the United States (according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data), could begin a journey to electrification. While other companies have focused on building electric charging networks for passenger vehicles, no one else has sought to build what Palmer calls “that full-stack solution” of an interstate network for truck fleets.
And now’s the time: Though only 2% of U.S. heavy-duty truck sales last year were electric, that figure is predicted to rise to 27% by 2030. In addition, about half of trucks already on the road today can be retrofitted to be electric. “If the trucks keep coming at the pace that they are now,” she says, “there will be a bottleneck for charging within less than 24 months.”
Though American railroads expanded from East to West, TeraWatt is moving in the opposite direction. The first electrified U.S. highway, a good portion of which opens in early 2024, will be the I-10 corridor. Seven charging sites are planned for the route, which will stretch from Long Beach, California, to El Paso, Texas, and be able to refuel huge semis in as little as 30 minutes depending on the truck. (California and Texas lead the nation in value of goods shipped.) Palmer raised $1 billion in funding last year to finance this project; TeraWatt is also benefiting from federal investment and tax incentives from the pro-EV Biden administration.
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