St Baker’s Evie taps US software for EV station rollout

Angela Macdonald-Smith
Jul 3, 2019
AFR

Electric car charging outfit Evie Networks, backed by coal entrepreneur Trevor St Baker, is targeting September or October for the slightly delayed opening of its first ultra-fast charging station after selecting experienced US software developer EV Connect to provide a user-friendly control system for the network.

Evie chief executive Chris Mills said the EV Connect software fitted with the venture’s goal to build a network of charging sites for electric cars in an open access format, able to be used by individuals or by vehicle fleet owners.

He said the sites, located about 150 kilometres apart, would address the “range anxiety” that hampers uptake of EVs in Australia, providing enough access to charging infrastructure for more affordable electric cars that have to recharge more frequently than top-end models.

Tritium chargers will be used in the Evie Networks rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. EV Connect

The first of the 42 sites in the initial rollout, announced last year, is likely to be at a service station in Brisbane or Victoria. Its opening has been delayed from an initial target of mid-2019 due to issues in arranging electrical connections.

This first phase will involve 80 charging stations from Tritium, a developer and manufacturer of EV fast chargers that is also backed by Mr St Baker’s St Baker Energy Innovation Fund and which has picked up contracts in the US and Europe to capture about 8 per cent of the rapidly growing global market.

The fund is providing about $35 million of the total $50 million budget for the first phase, making Mr St Baker, half-owner of the Vales Point coal power station in NSW, the financial backbone of the venture. While the initial project is fully funded, the venture is seeking additional investors.

Mr St Baker,  who is also an advocate for low-cost baseload power, said the eventual aim was for Evie to establish 100 highway charging stations, “being essential infrastructure for the acceleration of the uptake of electric vehicles, similar to what is happening around the world, for public health benefits … as well as for greenhouse gas emission reductions in the transport sector as renewable wind and solar generation is expanded”.

Jordan Ramer, founder and chief executive of EV Connect, described the firm’s cloud-based software platform, which is used by major organisations such as Los Angeles Metro and Lockheed Martin, as “the android platform for the EV charging market”. He said it was “agnostic” to the physical hardware and the firm worked with major charging station manufacturers to ensure it was compatible.

While Australia’s uptake of EVs has been slow compared with other developed economies, Mr Ramer said the country was “beginning to embrace vehicle electrification and the need for the charging infrastructure”, with Mr St Baker and the Evie Networks team at the forefront of supporting the market.

Mr St Baker poured an additional $28 million into Evie Networks in February through his energy innovation fund, which also backs printed batteries venture Printed Energy and wearable therapeutics developer CareWear, as well as Tritium and others. Tritium is also partly funded by Brian Flannery, Mr St Baker’s partner in Vales Point.