Tritium, a publicly-held company based in Brisbane, has about 6,000 fast chargers deployed in the U.S., according to the company’s data. That’s less than Tesla, the 500-pound gorilla in the EV charging world, which has a network of nearly 7,000 fast chargers around the country and a factory in Buffalo, New York, to keep churning out more. But while Tesla recently started opening a few of its chargers to all EV owners (and plans to make thousands more universally-usable by the end of 2024) most Tesla chargers still only work for the company’s own vehicles. That leaves Tritium holding about 30% of the U.S. market for universal EV chargers, the largest share of any company. It also has the largest U.S.-based factory capacity to build those universal chargers, which will be crucial to picking up lucrative contracts as part of a new $5 billion federal push to build out EV fast chargers. (That effort, introduced under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, stipulates that the federally-funded fast chargers must be assembled in the United States.)
Tritium’s chargers are largely marketed under other brand names, a fact that likely accounts for some of the charging giant’s lack of name recognition. When companies like Shell and ChargePoint build fast charging infrastructure, they often buy the chargers from Tritium. Tritium’s branding is often visible on the upper part of these charging units. “Are you familiar with ‘Intel Inside’?” says Mike Calise, president of the company’s Americas division. “We’re ‘Tritium on Top.’”
Some of the most ballyhood new pushes into EV charging in recent months have relied on Tritium equipment. Tritium is supplying equipment for BP’s push into electric vehicle charging, which involves BP building out airport fast charger hubs for car rental giant Hertz’s transition into electric vehicles. Tritium is also the manufacturer behind rideshare company Revel’s ambitions to build out more than 160 fast charger stalls in New York City by the end of 2023.
The charger company has also developed close ties to the Biden Administration. Calise says the company was involved in drafting Transportation Department charger standards after the passage of the infrastructure law in November 2021, which included the $5 billion program for fast charging along highways known as the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program. The Administration also gave Tritium top billing at a February 2022 White House event on electrifying transportation, touting the company’s plan to open a factory in Lebanon, Tennessee, capable of rolling out 30,000 fast chargers a year. “The manufacturing facility Tritium announced today is more than just great news for Tennessee,” President Joe Biden said at the time, standing next to a Tritium charger. “This is great news for workers across the country, for an economy, and, frankly, for the planet.” The facility opened in August of that year.
There’s good reason for the President to lavish such attention on the Australian manufacturer. U.S.-built green infrastructure is part of the narrative that Biden is selling to the American people, and Tritium was the kind of story they wanted to highlight. Tritium CEO Jane Hunter says the company was deciding whether to build a factory in Europe or in the U.S. before the passage of the 2021 infrastructure law, but ultimately went with the Tennessee location after the bill’s funding passed. “We probably couldn’t have been more in the sweet spot of what President Biden was hoping to drive with that strategy,” says Hunter.
