Australia’s looming EV disaster
There is a massive problem brewing with EVs in Australia and if it’s not dealt with very soon, there will be plenty of very angry Aussie car owners.
Electric vehicle experts have lashed out at “junk” chargers described as a “national problem” that must be addressed.
Unreliable EV fast-chargers made by Tritium are a source of immense frustration for drivers looking for a quick top-up.
Once praised by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as “the fastest and best chargers for electric vehicles in the world”, Tritium chargers are now often referred to by a less flattering term: Shitium.
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Tritium was a Brisbane-based company that was the dominant player in Australian electric vehicle charging, claiming to provide hardware to 75 per cent of the national fast-charging network.
The company rose to global prominence, building huge numbers of chargers for Australia before shutting down its Queensland factory to shift manufacturing to the US in 2023.
The move backfired – Tritium was declared insolvent in 2024, before Indian giant Exicom snapped it up cheaply.
Now, customers that bought its chargers are struggling to keep them running and EV owners risk being left stranded.
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‘ORPHAN’ STATIONS
Scott Nargar, Hyundai’s senior manager of future mobility and government relations, said Tritium hardware at the company’s head office in Sydney “was down more than was operating, so we had to get rid of it”.
“This is a national problem,” he said.
“Everyone did a great job of backing up an Australian manufactured, engineered, designed EV charging manufacturer, and then they moved overseas.
“They listed on the NASDAQ, they focused on US and European markets, especially the US market, and then we started to see the support drop off for spare parts and maintenance and diagnosis of stations in Australia.
“They bolted.
“The demise happened and we were left with a national network of stations that were backed by Australian companies like the motoring clubs and others, local governments and councils. that are now left with orphan stations that can’t be repaired.”
The workers at Tritium make some of the fastest and best chargers for electric vehicles in the world.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 10, 2021
They make them here, and they export them overseas. A future made in Australia.
We could have a new manufacturing boom in this country. We just need leadership. pic.twitter.com/hNZPTQmtA3
Nargar says the faulty old Tritium chargers from Hyundai HQ will be torn apart to see if any components can be used to help keep public chargers on the go.
Gold Coast city council made headlines last month with a decision to shut down 10 chargers due to a lack of support from Tritium.
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‘A NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT’
The council told the Gold Coast Bulletin that “the City made the difficult decision to decommission its 10 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in June due to challenges with sourcing parts and reliable servicing options”.
“Unfortunately, due to these challenges, the EV chargers’ performance declined where they were no longer reliable and the stations’ availability was not at the high standard we would expect for customers,” a spokesperson said.
Once the darling of politicians, investors and the green brigade, Tritium chargers have been described as an “embarrassment to Australia” and “complete junk” on social media.
Electric vehicle reporter Neerav Bhatt of Electrifying everything expressed his frustration with a faulty Tritium charger on YouTube, where he said “what they should really do is rip it out and throw it in the bin”.
“Broken, unreliable, old 50kW Tritium EV chargers are damaging the NRMA brand and destroying trust in the NRMA charging network as well as the Chargefox app they’re listed on,” he said.
“All NRMA 50kW Tritium chargers need to ripped out and replaced.”
That's annoying. My local rapid charger is dead again.
— Gavin Shoebridge (@KiwiEV) December 16, 2024
If you want to speed up the transition to electric vehicles, get tritium to start building gas pumps. pic.twitter.com/O6NSBLDdH3
Frustrated former employees told CarExpert “there were a lot of design flaws [in the chargers] that were mostly ignored. People at the top refused to make the necessary changes”.
Sydney EV enthusiast “Electric Future’ posted on X.com in December that four of their local chargers failed, and charged them $4 each time to do so.
“These chargers are funded by the tax payers through Transport for NSW and don’t work,” they said.
“This is unacceptable. We’ve seen this with #shitium before.”
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Nargar said a tough lesson learned through the Tritium experience is that companies need to be held publicly accountable to make sure charging services are provided as promised.
“There has been significant local, state and federal government funding of EV charging stations and for many years there were no KPIs, or minimal KPIs, to keep them going,” he said.
“One of the things we need is we truly need an independent website so people can go to and see what the actual uptime of every single charger is … they’re falling over constantly.”
Originally published as Australia’s looming EV disaster
