California's ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles will invest a combined $25 million in charging infrastructure for electric heavy-duty drayage trucks, marking a significant step in their effort to establish comprehensive charging networks statewide.
Under the plan, each port will contribute $12.5 million to the Clean Truck Fund, designed to facilitate the transition to an all-electric truck fleet by 2035. The initiative, developed in partnership with regional air quality agencies, aims to deploy 207 chargers across eight sites in Southern California, including Wilmington, Rancho Dominguez, Rialto, Fontana, Commerce, and the Port of Long Beach. The total project cost is estimated at $135 million.
“We're investing through our Clean Truck Fund to expedite the adoption of zero-emission trucks and infrastructure,” explained Gene Seroka, Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles. “In addition to funding charging stations, we're collaborating with the state of California to provide vouchers up to $250,000 for the purchase of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks. This underscores our daily progress towards achieving a zero-emission port.”
Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, emphasized the pivotal role of the Clean Truck Fund in improving air quality efforts amidst a fleet of over 23,000 trucks operating in the harbor. “These collaborative projects demonstrate the efficacy of our program, moving us closer to our goal of zero-emissions goods movement in San Pedro Bay,” Cordero noted.
The Clean Truck Fund is an integral part of the ports' broader Clean Air Action Plan, initially introduced in 2017. Since April 2022, non-zero-emission trucks have been subject to a $10 fee per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) for loaded import and export containers. The Port of Los Angeles collected approximately $78 million, while the Port of Long Beach amassed nearly $75 million from April 2022 through March 2024.
