Clayton Franklin and the team at EPCA and their electrified Cat 777 100-tonne haul truck in WA
The second annual Supercharge Australia Innovation Challenge has chosen 12 local start-ups that boast potential solutions that could accelerate the transition of Australia’s car fleet to fully electric vehicles (EVs) through a mass retrofit of the existing fleet.
The aim of the program is to deploy up to 1.3TWh of batteries that would convert half the Australian vehicle fleet to EVs, equivalent to over 10 million vehicles. These include councils and corporate fleets, marine vessels, mining haul trucks, and buses for public transport and private fleets.
The challenge is run as a partnership between EnergyLab and New Energy Nexus and is designed to support start-ups in developing solutions capable of deploying the batteries needed to electrify half the country’s vehicle fleet – a number that would require up to approximately 600GWh of heavy truck and bus batteries, 25GWh for mining applications, 400GWh for light trucks and commercial vehicles, and 260GWh for passenger vehicles.
“This is the first innovation challenge of its type in Australia to focus on mass EV retrofitting vehicles,” said Kirk McDonald, project manager for Supercharge Australia.
“With the incredible increase in battery demand this would generate, we aim to change the conversation on the viability of battery and cell manufacturing in Australia, taking advantage of our huge competitive advantage in the lithium battery supply chain.”
The challenge is run as a partnership between EnergyLab and New Energy Nexus and is designed to support start-ups in developing solutions capable of deploying up to 600GWh of heavy truck and bus batteries, 25GWh for mining applications, 400GWh for light trucks and commercial vehicles, and 260GWh for passenger vehicles.
“Not only would retrofitting half the Australian vehicle fleet to electric vehicles rapidly reduce emissions from transport, it would also support a big capacity uplift in our startup innovation ecosystem and clean energy advanced manufacturing,” added Megan Fisher, CEO of EnergyLab.
The 11 participants enrolled in the first Supercharge Australia Innovation Challenge held in 2023 raised over $48 million in additional funding after the first Challenge.
The second Challenge will consist of predominantly online sessions which will provide start-ups with advice from international and domestic experts in finance, intellectual property, and business growth. Participants will also have the opportunity to pitch their companies and technologies to potential investors.
The Challenge will culminate in the second Supercharge Australia Innovation Challenge Awards event which will be held in Sydney on November 7.
The first Challenge Award was won in 2023 by Perth-based lithium battery recycler Renewable Metals, which took the award home for its unique technology that turns battery waste into battery metals.
The start-ups selected for the second Challenge cohort are:
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.
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Sounds good. Execution might be a challenge at so many levels I wish them luck financing it.
Going broke seems more likely to me.
It is a fantastic idea and will provide comfort to many owners of old cars and trucks.
Whatever happened to the Sarich orbital engine?
Too efficient for big oil?
Ralph Sarich and his orbital engine! Now there is a blast from the past! The concept relies on sealing several sliding seals which was never very successfully achieved. The prototypes apparently had difficulty meeting emission requirements and suffered from NVH problems. Also the combustion chambers were a very far from ideal shape, a fault which was partly overcome by a clever stratified charge injection system. It seems the company had some success selling its injection system quite separately from the orbital engine.
Thanks. I thought a big player had bought the patent and buried it, which happens a lot. Antilock brakes for example.
This is great progress. Could not wait for this after suggesting it via gov't consultations for a while.
Jaunt in Vic are doing a cracking job of converting classic cars to full EV. They deserve this support to exapnd and hopefully extend to other states in Australia IMHO.
I can't decide whether this is a great idea or absolute rubbish. The positive side is that the electrification of specialised high-value vehicles (mining, marine etc) could make a lot of sense. On the other hand, converting a large number of passenger vehicles of a myriad of different makes and models makes no sense at all. It would be totally uneconomic and the results are likely to be mediocre to woeful. A more in-depth article, with some example cost and resource analyses, would be very welcome.
Some comparison of the internal space in electrified ICE vehicles with that in designed and built BEVs would seem appropriate