ChargePoint officially quits Australia as national charger growth tipped to double

Three and a half years after American electric vehicle (EV) charging network provider ChargePoint quietly shut down its Australian operations, the company has confirmed it will “no longer maintain a presence in Australia” from February 1.

In an email obtained by several news outlets, ChargePoint confirmed to employees that it will “no longer maintain a presence in Australia”, with its dedicated app and network of 46 charging stations in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia to be shuttered from next month.

The announcement comes as final confirmation of what many already suspected to be the case, after the company shut down its Australian operations in mid-2020 and failed to hand over management of its chargers to anyone else.

The Driven reported at the time that ChargePoint would extricate itself from the Australian market by May 2023 – although this date came and went without any official announcements.

The announcement comes at a difficult time for ChargePoint, which announced last week that it would be laying off approximately 12% of its global workforce in an effort to “position itself for long-term sustainable growth”.

“As part of a comprehensive business evaluation in my new position as CEO, today we have taken the difficult decision to reorganize our global workforce,” said Rick Wilmer, president and CEO of ChargePoint.

“After a thorough review of our business strategy and product roadmap, we are heightening our focus on execution, operational excellence, and improved efficiencies while we continue with our industry-leading innovation.”

Despite the Daily Mail’s alarmist claim that the news comes as “a major blow to Anthony Albanese’s plan to turn Australia green”, only 46 charging locations across four states will be lost, at a time when states across Australia continue to roll out ever more and ever faster EV chargers.

In just the first half of January, new EV chargers have been brought online in Western Australia, Queensland, and Canberra. These include new charging locations for two of the world’s longest EV networks – the WA EV Network and the Queensland Electric Super Highway.

Another 900 electric car-charging locations are tipped to appear in Australia during 2024, according to a new report – another doubling of charge points on top of record-breaking growth over the past 12 months.

The analysis, released by consulting firm Next System on Tuesday, found car-charging sites surged by 90 per cent in Australia during 2023.