Australia’s Tritium has inked a deal with Renault’s electric vehicle charging arm Elexent to provide DC fast-charging stations across Europe.
The new partnership will see Tritium RT50 and RTM75 DC rapid chargers deployed in 10 European countries as Renault seeks to help accelerate company fleet electrification in key markets.
Electrification of fleets has significant importance to cleaning up private transport as fleet turnover feeds a secondhand market that in turn makes EVs a more affordable option to a wider range of drivers.
While the new announcement does not disclose how many charging stations will be supplied under the agreement, Elexent reportedly was operating 4,000 stations on industrial and commercial sites in mid-2020.
Nicolas Schottey, CEO of Elexent, says that the fleet charging arm’s deal with Tritium is borne out of the Brisbane-based electric vehicle charger maker’s track record on reliability.
“To adequately address the growing need for fleet charging, it was necessary to find partners as trusted as Tritium. As we roll out infrastructure across Europe, Elexent is dedicated to providing our customers with the most advanced and reliable DC fast chargers for electric vehicles,” said Schottey in a statement.
Tritium’s chargers are deployed in more than 33 countries worldwide, and are known for their small footprint and innovative approach to electric vehicle charging.
The RT50 50kW charger just became its first unit to enable “plug and charge” functionality using the ISO 15118 standard (noting that this also requires cars and networks to integrate the technology to make it work).
The first RTM75, which is a scalable solution that allows installers to future-proof charging sites, went on-line in Broadbeach on Australia’s Gold Coast in January.
The DC fast charging units will enable fleets to add between 150 to 250 kilometres of driving range in a half-hour of charging.
Ivan Soto, Tritium’s European VP of sales, says that fleets are electrifying at a rapid pace. Renault is a leading seller of electric vehicles in Europe. It regularly lands in the top three of EV sales with home market France and Germany contributing to much of its sales.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.