A rare setback for the electric vehicle sector

A financing drama at Brisbane-based charging company Tritium breaks the run of good luck enjoyed by EVs this year.

A BYD Seagull electric vehicle at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this year. Picture: Bloomberg

The public struggles of Brisbane-based electric vehicle charging company Tritium is a rare backward step for a sector which recently scored a neat win when the High Court rejected Victoria’s attempt to tax it.

Just now the absence of EV road taxes and the arrival of tax incentives – in the form of leasing concessions – has helped the electric car sector against softer sales globally.

Better still, the days when EVs were largely represented by Teslas in the nation’s richest suburbs are fading, with cheap China-made models such as BYD and MG now nudging into the top of the sales tables.

But not every player can win. Tritium makes hardware and software for the charging of EVs. But this week it is desperately chasing an investor to place $90m with the group to avoid being delisted on Nasdaq after a shocking share slump.

Among its best known backers are coal barons Trevor St Baker and Brian Flannery: the same two men who made a fortune when they sold the Vales Point coal station in 2022 for more than $200m after buying it from the NSW government for $1m in 2015.

With the Queensland government rejecting a call for help from Tritium and some original shareholders refusing to put in more money, the company looks to be in deep trouble.

The CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC), Behyad Jafari, told The Australian: “We are always sorry to see any industry participant in trouble, but what we have here is an increasingly competitive space.”

On the ground across Australia, Tritium is just one of several charging infrastructure players, including the industry titan Tesla.

There have been reports of technical problems and delays at Tritium charging outlets though this is common across the sector, with the US Department of Energy reporting a running outage rate of 6 per cent in the industry.

A Tritium-made Yurika electric vehicle charging station. Picture: Richard Walker

It seems Tritium’s outstanding problem is investor sentiment. The group’s timing of its listing on Nasdaq was unfortunate as tech stocks have been heavily sold off in recent months.

Tritium’s share price has been decimated, dropping from a listing price of $US10 to just US20c this week.

In common with any local player trying to make it in a global auto market, another of the group’s challenges is whether it is in fact possible to run the operation from Australia.

Key Tritium shareholders have been doubting the ability of the company to run its 400-strong headquarters in Brisbane, suggesting a move to the US is the only way forward.

This is not the first time the issue has been raised for Australian auto industry players in the age of the electric vehicle. EV company SEA Electric had planned to build a plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, but it later shifted manufacturing to the US after years of struggling with policy makers.

Last month the High Court ruled in favour of electric car drivers when an attempt by the Victorian government to impose a road tax on EVs was deemed unconstitutional. The nature of the court decision is expected to stop any other state from trying to tax EVs in a traditional manner.

As the issue remains unresolved, the EVC has raised a concept first advocated in the Henry Tax Review of a road user charge scheme which would be national and encompass all traffic on roads regardless of their energy source.

“Australia should be focusing on boosting the transition to EVs and decarbonising our transport system. There is no need for Australia to be dependent on imported oil,” the EVC said in response to the court decision.

Originally published as A rare setback for the electric vehicle sector