Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), NextEra Energy Resources, and BlackRock Alternatives, through a fund managed by its Climate Infrastructure business, (BlackRock), are partnering on Greenlane, the companies’ joint venture to design, develop, install, and operate a U.S. nationwide, zero-emission public charging and hydrogen fueling network for medium- and heavy-duty battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. They also unveiled renderings of the site layout as a major milestone in the development of the project.
Greenlane will address the need for a publicly available, nationwide electric charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles, especially for long-haul freight operations.
“Greenlane is designed to begin to tackle one of the greatest hurdles to the trucking industry’s decarbonization – infrastructure,” said John O’Leary, president and chief executive officer, DTNA. “The nation’s fleets can only transform with the critical catalyst of publicly accessible charging designed to meet the needs for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.”
Read more: Scaling charging infrastructure: Planning for the future of your electric fleet
The more than $650 million joint venture has been in development since its inception in 2022. Greenlane's first site will be in Southern California, and multiple additional sites are being acquired along various freight routes. The joint venture team is collaborating on the necessary infrastructure to holistically deploy the charging network. Dedicated software and hardware teams are working on developing a custom, commercial vehicle reservation platform for fleet managers, dispatchers, and drivers.
The network of charging sites will be built on critical freight routes along the east and west coasts and in Texas. Where synergistic, Greenlane will leverage existing infrastructure and amenities while also adding complementary greenfield sites to fulfill anticipated customer demand. Greenlane’s initial focus will be on battery-electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, followed by hydrogen fueling stations for fuel cell trucks, with plans to expand access to light-duty vehicles in the future to serve the greater goal of electrifying mobility.
“Reliable charging infrastructure is a critical component of the electrification of the commercial trucking industry,” said David Giordano, global head of climate infrastructure, BlackRock Alternatives. “Greenlane provides an exciting opportunity to partner with key players in the energy transition and bring institutional capital to the growing sector.”
