Specialist
Former Head at Tritium Pty Ltd
Agenda
- Ongoing regulatory roadblocks and network-planning considerations
- EV (electric vehicle) charging station management and cost mapping
- Development challenges and execution risks
Questions
1.
How do you think EV [electric vehicle] taxes might be slowing uptake and therefore reducing charging station count growth in Australia? Are any states worse from a regulatory standpoint?
2.
Having been with a major charging station company that operates in Australia, would you say the network planning for charging station players is reactionary, so the EV growth or the supply of EVs has to be there before the stations come, or are is the planning pre-emptive?
3.
What do you think are the key considerations around network planning for the charging station players? How will they prioritise home vs commercial or non-residential charging stations?
4.
Could you outline the key considerations for developing a home charging station product vs one meant for a more commercial setting such as a mall?
5.
How would you compare rapid vs fast vs slow chargers from the perspective of running a charging station? How would you compare the commercial cost of running a rapid charger vs the throughput benefits?
6.
Given that you were in product development, you presumably had quite a lot of visibility on what sales was saying and what you were hearing from the customers. Would you say that reflects basically what the customer is seeking? Do they prioritise location over charging speed?
7.
How does the development complexity scale from slow through to rapid charging?
8.
You mentioned there’s not much difference between the different charging speeds from a product development perspective. Does that mean accessing even higher charging speeds will not be that difficult for the major operators? Presumably faster charging speeds may increase the ease of ownership for EVs.
9.
Can no company get to the megawatt charger level until the cables themselves can handle more power or the companies figure out their battery issues?
10.
Tritium has said a major advantage is its DCFC [direct current fast charging] technology. How would you compare the key charging technologies in Australia’s EV charging station market?
11.
Tritium says the DCFC technology has total cost of ownership benefits for charging station owners relative to other charging technologies. What are your thoughts on that? How does it work at the technology level? Where do those benefits come from, based on how the technology functions?
12.
How would you break down the costs of product development into key contributors or components?
13.
Do you think the cost of new product development in charging stations is coming down over time as the technology gets more broadly adopted and earlier kinks get worked out, or would you say the cost is stable or even growing?
14.
What have been the biggest development challenges for new charging technologies and charging station designs, especially when it comes to Australia specifically, with the extremes of temperature and climate in the country?
15.
When the design parameters change, does that have big impact on the cost of product development?
16.
What are your thoughts on the issues related to the software needs or software intensity for EV charging stations? Is that a big problem when it comes to product development?
17.
Do you think there is a long-term obsolescence risk for charging station technologies?
18.
What is the average upgrade cycle for a charging station? What is the maximum length you think is realistic before a charging station needs to be revamped?
19.
We talked about how a key constraint on faster charging technology is the batteries of the EVs themselves, but we also talked about how a lot of OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] are trying to pump up their battery capacities for EVs. Assuming that happened, do you think that could be another trigger for shorter upgrade cycles, so that’s almost like an upgrade cost risk for charging station owners?
