The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, will provide $25 million for a new partnership with regional air quality agencies to jump-start charging infrastructure for electric heavy-duty drayage trucks in one of the nation’s most populous regions.

The $135 million in projects led by the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee will install up to 207 charging units at eight sites around Southern California in Wilmington, Rancho Dominguez, Rialto, Fontana, Commerce and the Port of Long Beach.

On a Mission to Zero Emissions

Contracting for the projects is being administered by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“We’re investing with our Clean Truck Fund to get both zero-emission (ZE) trucks and infrastructure on the street as quickly as possible,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “In addition to funding charging stations, we’re partnering with the state of California to offer vouchers of up to $250,000 toward the purchase of a ZE heavy-duty truck. Every day, we’re making progress toward our goal of a zero-emission port.”

In separate actions this week, the Los Angeles Harbor Commission and the Long Beach Harbor Commission each approved allocating $12.5 million from their respective Clean Truck Funds for the plan.

The Clean Truck Fund Rate is a key component of the ports’ efforts to transition to a zero-emissions truck fleet by 2035, as established by the Clean Air Action Plan.

Rate collection began in April 2022 at $10 per twenty-foot equivalent unit or $20 per forty-foot equivalent unit. Exemptions from the rate are provided for loaded containers hauled by zero-emissions trucks, and under limited circumstances, by low-nitrogen oxide trucks.

Through March 2024, the Port of Los Angeles collected about $78 million; the Port of Long Beach has collected almost $75 million.