Las Vegas Motor Speedway welcomes first truck stop with EV charging

Weary truck drivers now have a new place to rest and recharge as a truck stop company has opened its first location at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Nashville-based Realize is building truck stops equipped with electric vehicle chargers for semitrucks and other long-haul drivers to use to address the lack of available parking spaces and chargers across the country for these types of vehicles. The very first Realize location is in one of the parking areas at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway near Interstate 15. Company and government officials gathered at a press conference Monday to celebrate its opening.

“We started this business to solve the critical shortage of truck parking,” Realize CEO Cody Horchak said. “The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is critical for us because it provides easy on and off access to the highway, which is critical for truck drivers and fleets and provides ample amount of surface parking so we can set it up very quickly.”

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration estimates there are 313,000 truck parking spaces in the country, but despite that 98 percent of respondents to a survey of nearly 12,000 truck drivers said they have trouble finding a safe parking spot.

Realize has plans to open enough locations by 2030 to accommodate 800,000 parking spaces for trucks and for 200,000 of those spaces to support electric vehicle charging, Horchak said. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway location has 74 total parking spots and 20 EV charging stations.

The focus of the future Realize locations will be at larger existing venues such as convention centers, amphitheaters and state fairgrounds that already have big parking lots and larger electric capabilities to accommodate providing electricity to larger vehicles, Horchak said. But not every venue with large electric infrastructure and parking lots will work for truck parking and EV charging.

“We typically stay away from arenas or stadiums. They usually have a lot more weekly events, concerts, those kinds of things,” he said. “We’re also looking at a lot of casinos that have tremendous amounts of real estate around them to turn them into truck parking spots.”

More locations coming to Nevada

Realize wants to open 18 locations in Nevada over the next year, counting the one at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with four more in Las Vegas and the others dispersed throughout the state, including in Reno and rural areas, according to Horchak. There are also plans to add 50-70 Realize locations throughout the country by the end of the year.

Other amenities provided at the parking lots include security systems with cameras, bathrooms with showers, options to buy beverages and larger than usual parking spots.

A range of state officials showed up to the press conference to commemorate the opening of the first Realize location in Nevada, including Rep. Susie Lee, Rep. Dina Titus and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar.

All of the government officials touted the opening of the Realize location as a step forward for Nevada’s transportation industry for offering more options for drivers to rest and to improve electrification options for trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles.

“It’s not just solving the problem of charging, but it’s also solving a critical problem for many of our truck drivers — who we rely on for the logistics around this country — to be able to find a place to park,” Lee said.

Horchak said that while most heavy-duty vehicles that will use Realize locations rely on gas to power their engines, the EV chargers can still reduce the amount of fuel used by these vehicles since they can power other functions such as the air conditioning while they are parked.

“There’s a lot of trucks that when they’re parked, especially in Nevada and in 100 degree heat, they idle their engine to keep their air conditioning going,” he said. “Plugging into our EV stations … is a huge cost savings as well as a huge reduction in emissions.”

There could be more investments into adding more businesses like Realize to Nevada and the rest of the nation since the Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, which plans to allocate $755 million towards a grant program that would add or renovate truck parking facilities, is moving its way through Congress. Titus is a co-sponsor of this bill and supports it because it can address the parking shortage while also covering costs to add charging stations to parking facilities.

“It’s not just for truckers resting, it helps us move to a green economy,” Titus said. “Anytime you quit using so much fossil fuels, that’s good for the planet as well as it’s good for the truckers and the economy.”

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com or on Twitter @seanhemmers34.