NATSO Staff Visits WattEV to Share Insights and Learn About the Company
Article created for the digital issue of the NATSO Foundation’s magazine.
WattEV is taking a multi-pronged approach to help advance the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles, offering truck-as-a-service equipment and developing electric truck charging infrastructure. The company has received millions of dollars in grants to build out charging infrastructure and has joined NATSO to learn more about the industry. NATSO’s Christine Schoessler, chief operating officer, and Darren Schulte, vice president of membership, along with several NATSO travel center members, recently traveled to WattEV’s headquarters in California to connect with the company’s leadership.
“We got connected [with NATSO] through our membership and learned a lot from Darren and Christine during their visit,” said WattEV CEO Salim Youssefzadeh.
Schoessler said the visit also allowed NATSO to learn more about WattEV. “They are running a very disciplined and very thoughtful business,” she said. “What really jumped out at me is they are looking to have EVs fit the reality as opposed to trying to change the reality to shoehorn EVs in.”
Deploying EVs in heavy-duty applications can be challenging, and WattEV is approaching heavy-duty electric vehicles with a problem-solving mindset. “They are taking a holistic look at the pain points all along the ecosystem,” Schoessler said.
That includes addressing the issues that various stakeholders, including fleets, shippers and drivers, encounter when transitioning to EVs. WattEV also hopes to help reduce the risk truck stops and travel centers often face when installing charging infrastructure.
“They are looking to partner with travel centers, and they’re saying, ‘You’re good at being a travel center, and we’re good at what we’re good at,'” Schoessler explained. “Mitigating risk is important to them, and they want to build on travel centers’ expertise.”
To help address some of the limitations surrounding range and charging time associated with heavy-duty EVs, Schoessler said WattEV is focused on a Pony Express model that gets drivers from Point A to Point B so the trucks can recharge, and the drivers return home.
“The new generation of drivers doesn’t always want to be long-haul, over-the-road drivers, so the model aligns well with getting drivers home,” she said, adding that the WattEV team respects the critical role professional drivers play in the supply chain. “In their vision, the professional driver receives the same professional treatment an airline pilot receives.” Youssefzadeh said WattEV is looking forward to partnering with independent travel center operators.
// This article was created for Stop Watch magazine, the magazine of the NATSO Foundation. Foundation is the research, education and public outreach subsidiary of NATSO, Inc. The NATSO Foundation provides programs and products to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the traveling public’s needs through improved operational performance and business planning. Visit www.natsofoundation.org for more information.
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