Australian firm boosts Biden’s electric car revolution
WA Today.
Updated February 9, 2022


Washington: A leading Australian electric car charging manufacturer has turned to the US to expand its operations, blaming a lack of government incentives for Australia having one of the worst electric vehicle uptakes in the world.   

In a much-needed boost for US President Joe Biden, Brisbane-based firm Tritium will set up a new production plant in Tennessee within months, making up to 30,000 electric-vehicle fast chargers a year and creating an estimated 500 jobs.

President Joe Biden and Jane Hunter, CEO of Tritium, on Wednesday AEDT. Hunter says Australians need more incentives to switch to electric.


Chief executive Jane Hunter, who appeared alongside Biden as he made the announcement at the White House today, told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald that expanding into the US was a direct result of the President’s electric vehicle policies, which had resulted in “a massive uptick in our demand in North America”.

Asked about Australia’s market - where electric cars only represent about 1.9 percent of the light vehicle market - Hunter warned that the nation was falling too far behind. 

“We’re lagging,” she said. “So 1.9 per cent is one of the worst rates of uptake in the developed world, certainly behind G5 nations, and that’s because we haven’t had policies.”

Hunter said it wasn’t access to charging stations that is the real problem in Australia, it’s a lack of incentives.

“So it’s not subsidies, but you do have to have policies that favour EV [electric vehicle] uptake, and that could be as simple as offering great parking, not increasing taxes until you’ve reached the percentage target that you want to reach, and frankly, just telling the public that you’re now buying a piece of obsolete technology and that the tech has moved on.

“If the government just gives nice clear messages on that, we’d start to see Australians shift quite rapidly.”

A spokesman for energy minister Angus Taylor said the Morrison Government welcomed the news of Tritium’s expansion in the United States, and noted the company is also helping the roll-out of charging stations in Australia.







“As part of the $2.1 billion the Morrison Government has committed to future fuel and vehicle technologies, we are supporting domestic battery electric vehicle manufacturing and the infrastructure that will allow Australian motorists to charge or re-fuel across urban and regional Australia,” the spokesman said in a statement.


Tritium’s decision to expand in the US comes after Biden set an ambitious target for half the vehicles sold in the United States be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2030.

However, to achieve this goal, the White House doesn’t just require more Americans to switch from gas-guzzling cars - it also requires a network of hundreds of thousands of charging stations.

Until now, Tritium’s biggest factory was in Brisbane, making about 5000 units a year. But after the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed Congress, setting aside $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations, shifting to the US was a no-brainer because it instantly led to a shift in the company’s revenue mix, Hunter said.

Tritium’s new manufacturing facility in Lebanon, Tennessee will produce many of the company’s DC fast chargers.


At the start of last year, 70 per cent of the company’s revenue came from Europe and only 20 per cent came from the US, with the remaining 10 per cent from the Asia Pacific. But by the end of last year, after the bill had passed, 43 per cent of the company’s revenue mix was coming from North America, 43 per cent Europe and 14 per cent from the Asia Pacific.

”President Biden’s transport electrification policies have contributed to enormous demand for Tritium’s products here in the US - and that directly led us to pivot and change our global manufacturing strategy,” Hunter said earlier during the announcement at the White House.

Today’s announcement was painted as win for the US President who has made rebuilding American manufacturing a central plan of his economic agenda, including pushing for billions of dollars of public and private investments in the electric vehicle industry.

In addition to wanting half of all vehicles on the road to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030, Biden’s plan also involves building a highway network of 500,000 charging stations across the US and converting an estimated 600,000 of its government fleet to alternative fuels.

Figures from the Environment America Research and Policy Centre show that more than 300,000 plug-in vehicles were sold in 2019, up from virtually none just a decade earlier.

But according to the Alternative Fuels Data Centre, there are only about 46,000 publicly available charging stations across the US and industry experts have previously estimated there would need to be at least five to 10 times that rate for the President to achieve his targets.

Washington: A leading Australian electric car charging manufacturer has turned to the US to expand its operations, blaming a lack of government incentives for Australia having one of the worst electric vehicle uptakes in the world.   :(

Is there nothing you will not blame on Morrison?

Sales of EVs are low because:

1. They are too bloody expensive.

2. Not enough charging stations.

3. And when you find one, it may not be working because the software is prone to all the problems of your average laptop. Or as in Europe, you have to wait while others are ahead of you.

4. Battery degradation cannot be dismissed by statistics, especially if you coughed up twice the price of an equivelent ICE car.

5. Too many gadgets and onboard software glitches.

6. You will get locked out, if the dinky 12volt battery has a problem.

7. And get this. The Hyundai Ioniq doesn't have a spare tire.

Recommendation: Wait til they offer a full 10 year warranty, batteries and all.

99% of EV owners don't need public charging stations. They charge at home.

Laugh till you cry wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 9:36am:

99% of EV owners don't need public charging stations. They charge at home.

Is that like 99% of statistics are made up? ;)

lee wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 11:07am:

Laugh till you cry wrote on Feb 10th, 2022 at 9:36am: 99% of EV owners don't need public charging stations. They charge at home. Is that like 99% of statistics are made up? ;)

In Lee's world its 100%.

issuevoter wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 8:41am:

Is there nothing you will not blame on Morrison?

so you don't think govt. policy affects the uptake at all?

Hmmm

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whiteknight wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 5:02am:

Washington: A leading Australian electric car charging manufacturer has turned to the US to expand its operations, blaming a lack of government incentives for Australia having one of the worst electric vehicle uptakes in the world.   :(

The unions have made it too expensive to manufacture anything here.

Labor costs are much lower in the US.

Your article says Scotty gave $2.1 billion of tapayers money towards this, do you think money grows on trees?

John Smith wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 4:06pm:

issuevoter wrote on Feb 10th, 2022 at 8:41am: Is there nothing you will not blame on Morrison? so you don't think govt. policy affects the uptake at all?

Well  . . . you can blame everything on the government I suppose. They should not get into the charge network business anymore than petrol stations.

The number one problem is the price of EVs, not policy. My neighbour paid close to 60k for an Ioniq and its no bigger than an i30.

issuevoter wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 4:58pm:

John Smith wrote on Feb 10th, 2022 at 4:06pm: issuevoter wrote on Feb 10th, 2022 at 8:41am: Is there nothing you will not blame on Morrison? so you don't think govt. policy affects the uptake at all? Well  . . . you can blame everything on the government I suppose. They should not get into the charge network business anymore than petrol stations. The number one problem is the price of EVs, not policy. My neighbour paid close to 60k for an Ioniq and its no bigger than an i30.

Price and choice. See my image above.

issuevoter wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 4:58pm:

Well  . . . you can blame everything on the government I suppose. They should not get into the charge network business anymore than petrol stations.

when the petrol industry started in Australia foreign petrol companies had all sorts of tariffs imposed on them. Don't try and compare an established industry that has been protected up until it could sustain itself, to a new industry that the well funded oil industry is determined to try and stop .

John Smith wrote on Feb 10^th, 2022 at 8:23pm:

Don't try and compare an established industry that has been protected up until it could sustain itself, to a new industry that the well funded oil industry is determined to try and stop .

I wondered why those damned oil companies had lowered fuel prices so much. To kill the latent competition. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D