Australian electric vehicle charger company Tritium sweeps the US

To achieve this goal, the White House not only requires more Americans to switch from gas-guzzling cars, it also requires a network of hundreds of thousands of charging stations.

According to figures from McKinsey and Co, while electric car sales in the US have risen by an average of 40 percent each year since 2016, nearly half of consumers say problems with the battery or charging are your main concerns.

It’s an exciting time for companies like Tritium, whose share of the EV fast charger market is now second only to China, says Hunter.

By the time the Tennessee plant is fully operational, its production lines are expected to be making up to 30,000 DC (direct current) fast chargers for electric vehicles a year, six times more than the 5,000 units the company currently makes in Brisbane. .

“The scale is absolutely phenomenal,” she says. “The chargers we make here are going to be installed on US highways; in the shops; in workplaces They are going to deliver on our vision of fast charging everywhere and make those long distances you want to travel in an electric vehicle as easy as refueling.”

Charging

The plant was well received by locals in Tennessee, a southern state known for being the heart of America’s country music scene; the Graceland home of Elvis Presley; and the much-loved site of Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park.

But Tennessee is also experiencing something of an electric vehicle boom: Volkswagen recently decided to spend nearly $800 million in Chattanooga to build its first electric vehicle; General Motors announced that it would build its flagship EV Cadillac in the state; and Nissan chose to establish its first manufacturing plant in Smyrna.

Among the many Americans who have recently switched from combustion engine vehicles to electric cars is Jamal Jones of Nashville, a 34-year-old Uber driver who owns a Model 3 Tesla. He says that he charges his car once a day, which costs around US$15-20 for a full battery.

“That will last about 339 miles [545km]”, he says, welcoming the news of a new player in the market. “The cars are great, but you definitely need the charging stations.”

The plant comes as Australia too begins to embrace electric vehicles more than in the past.

Last week, the Albanian government announced plans to publish a discussion paper to develop a strategy to expand the range of new EV models in the country.

Electric vehicles currently account for around 2 per cent of domestic car sales in Australia, leaving the nation behind in much of the world.

However, Australia’s ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, said the change in government had “upped the ante” in terms of climate change policy.

“When our new prime minister went to the Quad meeting in Tokyo right after the election, he told President Biden that he wanted to make climate a third pillar of the [US-Australia] alliance,” said Sinodinos, who helped cut the ribbon at the factory.

“We have the ANZUS alliance, the military and security alliance that is increasingly important in today’s uncertain world; we have a commercial and economic commitment… and now we have the climate as the third pillar of the alliance.

“This is just another example of how the US and Australia are working together.”

As for the future of the company in the US?

“Our mission is to electrify transportation,” said Mike Calise, president of Tritium for the Americas. Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

“That’s all forms of electric transportation: two-wheel, four-wheel, passenger, fleet, marine, aviation… It’s going to take a while for that to happen, but we think we’re on a trajectory that will eventually displace fossil fuels and meet with those climate initiatives.”

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