Dive Brief:
- PepsiCo expects to save close to $1 million in fuel costs to charge its fleet of 50 semitrucks located at its bottling facility in Fresno, California, according to an April 28 press release.
- Through Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Flex Connect program, PepsiCo now has access to daytime charging. PG&E is also upping charging capacity for the food and beverage company’s site from 3 megawatts to 4.5 megawatts.
- If the energy provided was static or “without Flex Connect, we would actually be limited to only charging overnight, from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. We would be completely cut off the majority of the day,” Dejan Antunovic, electrification program manager at PepsiCo, told Trucking Dive in an interview.
Dive Insight:
The additional megawatts through Flex Connect enables PepsiCo to increase its charging capabilities from 30 trucks to its full fleet of 50 EV trucks, helping maintain its operation with ease, Antunovic said.
On the logistics side, “we've been able to operate in a very similar fashion if we had 6 megawatts versus 4.5,” Antunovic added.
Charging from zero to 80% only takes about 40 minutes to 60 minutes, so the quick turnaround has allowed fleet operations to function successfully, Antunovic said.
Electric grids are used more in the summer, creating challenges for businesses that need charging. Flex Connect and PG&E are helping PepsiCo move past those hurdles due to the company's funneling of excess power to different days and times of the week.
The 170,000-square-foot manufacturing facility's fleet in Fresno distributes PepsiCo products including Pepsi, Starry, Rockstar and Aquafina, a spokesperson said in an email.
“PepsiCo has additional EV fleet sites in the queue for Flex Connect as it continues to advance its broader sustainability goals,” per the press release.
PepsiCo also operates EV truck fleets at other California locations including 15 EV trucks at a Frito-Lay facility in Modesto, Antunovic said. PepsiCo Beverages North America operates 21 Tesla semis in Sacramento and another 24 in Torrance.
Combined, Frito-Lay and Pepsi, which is part of PepsiCo’s entity, operate 1,500 electric vehicles of all sizes, not necessarily just semitrucks, he added.
