EV truck fleet charging: infrastructure planning for warehouse operators

The load math nobody runs early enough

A Class 8 electric truck pulls 350–500kW during DC fast charging. Most warehouse operators we’ve worked with significantly underestimate this when they first consider electrification. A typical 750,000 SF distribution center built five years ago has a 3,000A service at 480V — about 2.5MW of total capacity. Add 10 fast-charging stalls and you’ve consumed 100% of that capacity during peak charging windows, leaving zero for the lighting, refrigeration, ASRS, dock equipment, and office that the building was originally designed for.

This is why "we’ll add EV charging later" frequently means "we’ll trigger a service entrance upsize and a utility coordination cycle that adds 6–18 months and several million dollars to the project." Better to plan the load math during initial design, even if buildout is staged.

The four load profiles that matter

1. Class 8 DC fast charging (highest demand)

350–500kW per stall during charging. Charging windows are typically 30–90 minutes for highway tractors, longer for terminal tractors that may stay plugged-in overnight. Connector types are converging on CCS1 in North America with NACS adapter compatibility increasingly required. Equipment manufacturers include ChargePoint, ABB, Heliox, Tritium, and BTC Power. Pricing is highly variable.

2. Yard truck / terminal tractor charging (medium demand)

Typical yard tractor electrification uses lower power (50–150kW). Yard tractors run continuous shift work and benefit from opportunity charging during dock-side dwell time. Charge management software is more important here than peak charger power.

3. Class 2 / Class 3 fleet vehicle charging (low demand)

Last-mile delivery vans, fleet sedans, and pickups typically use Level 2 charging at 7–19kW per stall. These are the cheapest chargers and the lowest impact on facility electrical load. A typical fleet of 30–50 vans can be supported with Level 2 infrastructure totaling 200–500kW of demand.

4. Employee / visitor charging (lowest demand)

Level 2 chargers in employee parking. Typically 7–11kW per stall. Used overnight or during workday parking. Often subsidized by utility incentive programs. Lowest load impact, highest visibility for sustainability reporting.

What to plan for during preconstruction

For warehouse operators planning electrification — either at new construction or as a retrofit at an existing site — a few things should land in early planning rather than waiting for charger purchase:

• Total fleet electrification load at full buildout. Not phase 1 — total. The service entrance has to support the end state, not the starting state. Phasing the actual charger installation is fine; phasing the service capacity isn’t.
• Utility coordination ahead of construction. CenterPoint, Oncor, AEP, CPS — each utility has its own engineering review timeline for service upsizing. 6–12 months from utility request to energization is typical for any meaningful upsize. Engage early.
• Demand management vs. peak capacity. Software-based demand management (Driivz, Star Charge, etc.) can reduce peak capacity requirements substantially by sequencing chargers rather than running them simultaneously. The trade-off is charging time per truck. The economics shift quickly above ~10 fast-charging stalls.
• Site utility incentives. Texas utilities offer various incentive programs for fleet electrification. The structure varies and changes — worth a conversation with the utility’s commercial accounts team during design.
• Future-proofing trenches and conduit. The cheapest time to install conduit to future charger locations is during initial parking lot construction. Even if the chargers won’t go in for 3–5 years, planning the underground at construction saves substantial trenching later.
• Generator and emergency power coordination. If your facility has standby power, fleet charging load typically isn’t on backup — but the chargers’ control systems may need to be. Decide this during design, not after a utility outage strands your fleet.

The mistake we see most often

Operators treat EV charging like a parking lot amenity and let it land in the project late, as a value-engineering line item. By the time the actual charger procurement happens, the building’s electrical infrastructure has been finalized with no provisions for the load. Three options at that point:

1. Reduce the charger count or charger power below the original plan (operationally compromises the fleet operator’s schedule).
2. Add a utility service upsize after the fact (6–18 month delay, substantial cost).
3. Install demand management software that effectively reduces simultaneous charger output (operationally workable but doesn’t solve every case).

None of these are good outcomes. All three are avoidable by getting the load math right during early design.

What this means for fleet operators evaluating sites

If you’re a fleet operator evaluating warehouse sites for lease and you plan to electrify within the lease term, ask the building owner’s engineering team specifically:

• What’s the current service entrance size and how much margin is available?
• What’s the utility’s response when asked about service upsizing at this site? (Some sites are constrained by distribution-side capacity, not just the service drop.)
• Are there existing tenants drawing significant load that might affect future capacity?
• Has the building owner committed any of the existing margin to other tenants or future buildout?

These questions during lease evaluation will tell you whether the site supports your electrification plan within the lease term — or whether you’ll need a different building.