Tritium sees pipeline of $200 million electric vehicle fast-charger sales
Brisbane-based electric-vehicle charger company Tritium has a current sales pipeline of at least $200 million and 3,000 systems, according to the company’s co-founder and CEO David Finn.
Finn, speaking to Business News Australia this week, claimed that the company now accounts for a fifth of all direct-current (DC) fast-chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) sold in Western countries.
With over 20 years of expertise in e-mobility and a vision for e-mobility and renewable energy which dates back to 1999, Tritium has already this year made significant inroads in the United States, India, and Ireland.
Even more importantly was the company’s April announcement that it had opened the largest facility for the research and development of electric vehicle chargers in the world.
The new facility, based at the company’s global headquarters in the east of Brisbane, is now home to 300 sales, support and marketing, R&D, and engineering staff.
Currently, a significant portion of EV charging is, unsurprisingly, done at home – at the end of the day in preparation for the next day.
However, ultra-fast DC chargers are becoming more popular and, with time, more accessible.
Included in the range of these ultra-fast DC chargers is Tritium’s Veefil-PK 350kW DC charger and its Veefil-RT 50kW DC Fast Chargers – the latter will be supplied to major Australian electric highway infrastructure developments undertaken by Evie Networks and Chargefox.
“This technology is able to let you drive from Brisbane to Sydney – two stops, 15 minutes each – so it really will enable mass market adoption,” said David Finn, speaking to Business News Australia.
“After the highways are covered, then movement into the metropolitan areas is key as well because it lets you use the vehicle in the same way you’d use a petrol-powered vehicle.
“You stop in once a fortnight for 15 minutes, time for a cup of coffee, and you’re charged up for the next two weeks.”
Australia currently doesn’t have a lot of EVs driving around – figures from the Electric Vehicle Council show that nearly 2,300 battery and hybrid EVs were sold in Australia in 2017, a 67% increase over the previous year.
However, with 19 EV models currently available in Australia and four more on the way, and combined with the scale-up of the infrastructure necessary to support a growing population of EVs, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing significant large-scale growth.
“A lot of luxury brands have brought vehicles here,” said Finn. “In three years alone there’s going to be an additional 50 new makes and models of electric vehicle in the marketplace and the price of batteries continues to drop.
“We’re just under $100 per kilowatt hour and in the next few years it’s going to halve again, so at that point in time you really start to reach parity with even just a mid-range type sedan.”
Source : thedriven.io
