End of the road? Tritium rescue call rebuffed

Electric vehicle fast-charging firm Tritium is unlikely to receive funding from any government in Australia, as it moves to shift the bulk of its operations to the US to survive.

Tritium is unlikely to receive funding from any government in Australia, reinforcing the view of one of its major shareholders that the troubled firm needs to shift to the US to survive.

Federal Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic said he would be reluctant to provide funding to the Brisbane-based fast-charging company, which has racked up losses approaching $190m over the past year amid an expensive rollout of a huge US factory.

“We haven’t made a call about whether or not we’ll back them in and I’d be reluctant to make a call on that,” Mr Husic told a forum in London.

Tritium is facing increasing competition from rivals who can make chargers with higher profit margins in lower cost jurisdictions.

“Investors will be obviously working with the management team to determine what they will do next,” Mr Husic said.

“As for approaching the government, we haven’t received an approach yet but I’d be very reluctant to necessarily make a positive decision given that there’s a lot more that needs to be worked out within that company.”

Federal Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic. Picture: Lachie Millard

Mr Husic said he had high regard for Tritium as it was providing very important electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

“They’ve been able to relocate parts of their business to the US and that’s all very good but again they need to work through that,” he said.

The Queensland government has also reportedly rejected a proposal by Tritium to invest more than $90m in the company as part of an equity deal.

It is understood the Queensland government would be reluctant to put money into the firm, given it plans to move the bulk of its operations to the United States.

Energy billionaire and Tritium shareholder Brian Flannery said the company needed to shift production overseas if it was to survive, saying he was shocked by its deteriorating finances.

Mr Flannery, who owns about 5 per cent of the company, said Tritium would need to trim overheads and lower manufacturing costs if it was to make its way in an increasingly competitive market. He said Tritium was up against larger competitors that could make chargers substantially cheaper, manufactured in places like Estonia and China.

Anthony Albanese on a visit to Tritium in Brisbane earlier this year. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Mr Flannery said Tritium had good people and good products but faced some of the highest energy and labour costs in the world by manufacturing in Australia.

“Manufacturing is just not working in Australia,” Mr Flannery said. “Australia does some great things in farming and mining but moving nuts and bolts around the world is not feasible when you could get it made a lot cheaper in a place like Estonia.”

He doubted governments would want to invest in the company even though politicians liked the “photo opportunities” provided by the company.

Anthony Albanese has visited the company’s Brisbane campus three times and in May noted that “every time I come back, I hear about more revenue, more jobs being created, and more countries where Australia is exporting to. This is a great success story here and I congratulate everyone at Tritium for their achievements”.

Mr Husic said that as Australia mobilised industry to meet renewable targets, individual companies will experience rough patches “but there will be others that will do really well”. “But we’ve got to be able to see what we can do in the Australian context,” Mr Husic said. “We’ve said we want to be a renewable energy superpower, we have some of the greatest sources of solar energy on the planet and that can help us in terms of solar and wind in terms of making the transition.”

Originally published as End of the road? Tritium rescue call rebuffed