Tritium chairman Trevor St Baker says Australian cities would be healthier with electric cars

One of Queensland’s richest men believes Australian cities would be more liveable and healthier if there were more electric cars on our roads.

EVER since I was a young man in Sydney, I was concerned about the gasoline smog that hovered above the skyline and impacted the health of those living and working in cities. While Australian cities have advanced in many ways in the last fifty years, our obsession with petroleum vehicles has only exacerbated the problems of inner-city pollution, congestion and poor public health.

To see a real reduction in illnesses from airborne toxins, we have to electrify the transport sector and empower citizens with the ability to choose electric vehicles and create healthier cities to live in.

Since the early 2000s, I have slowly seen the attitude of Australians towards electric vehicles begin to evolve to fall in line with the rest of the world.

As an example, Brisbane was one of the first Australian cities to offer half-price parking to electric vehicle owners who chose to charge at King George Square at no cost.

Many cities around the world are legislating against diesel and gasoline bikes, trikes and buses in cities.

From 2020, only 100 per cent electric taxis will be allowed to operate in cities in China.

Many countries in Europe have legislated to outlaw registrations of diesel or gasoline engine vehicles from as early as 2025.

Trevor St Baker in an electric Tesla car. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

This will flow on in coming years with the United Kingdom legislating similar registrations from 2040 and from 2050 in Germany. This is influencing the massive array of new electric vehicles models coming in world markets over the next few years.

While Australia has lagged behind in the incentivising and uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), its local EV fast charger industry is booming, with one of the nation’s most outstanding new-start manufacturing and export stories centred in Murarrie, in Brisbane.

Eight years ago, I spoke at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit in Brisbane on the contribution that EVs could make to improving city health and to the finances of its citizens.

After this, I met three young University of Queensland graduates that were global leaders in battery management services to the solar car racing industry and in EV battery management and charging, who had received a Federal Government grant to develop and commercialise an electric vehicle DC fast charger.

I became a major investor, and Chairman, and with mentoring also from my St Baker Energy Innovation Fund (StBEIF) team, I have been able to be part of establishing a successful EV charging infrastructure industry in Brisbane.

Now, the company these three UQ graduates founded – Tritium Pty Ltd – has many thousands of EV fast chargers across the world, providing the essential charging infrastructure for the uptake of EVs, improving public health and making cities more liveable.

Most notably in 240 highway ultra-fast charging stations being constructed throughout Europe that are developed, manufactured and exported from Brisbane, Australia.

In Australia, the private sector is leading the way, such as the $58 million the StBEIF has committed to its Evie Networks’ 42 highway EV charging stations for construction between Cairns and Adelaide.

The financial benefits of the electrification of the transport sector will all be in the hands of citizens who make choices to own cars that not only have lower refuelling and maintenance costs and a longer vehicle life span, but will encourage better public health outcomes.

That’s why my St Baker Energy Innovation Fund was one of the major partners of the 2019 Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayors Forum, in Brisbane this year.

I wanted to showcase what Brisbane-based and Australian companies are doing to improve the liveability of cities, to the people who are motivated most to achieve these positive outcomes.

Trevor St Baker is the founder of ERM Power, and Chairman of St Baker Energy Innovation Fund and Tritium. He is worth $556m according to the 2019 edition of The List, published by The Australian.