JET Charge & Australia’s EV Future

Yesterday, I sat down with JET Charge’s Head of Future Business, Kristian Handberg. He wanted to share his insights on what’s driving the EV market following Australia’s recent federal election. During our long phone interview (he is based in Melbourne, I am in Brisbane), he told me about the shifts in buyers’ misconceptions about electric vehicles, the factors that fleet buyers are considering, and “Paymate.”

First, a little background. JET Charge is a young, agile, and energetic company started in 2013. Initially, its business centred around installing EV chargers for Tesla owners in Victoria (JET Charge’s home state). Since then, “JET Charge has grown to be Australia’s market leader with a growing presence in New Zealand. With a team of 170 people (and counting!), we offer the full vertical in EV Charging, including:

• EV Charging cords and accessory sales
• Home charger supply and installation
• Small medium and large commercial installation of chargers
• Strategy consulting for apartments, shopping centres and car parks
• Maintenance and warranty support
• Software and hardware development
• Private EV charging infrastructure as a service.”

JET Charge develops its software in Australia for local consumers. “We’re passionate about developing the skills locally that will be required to transition Australia into a low emissions future. We are passionate about decarbonising the transport sector to make a real contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions in Australia and New Zealand.”

After I stuffed up our Zoom meeting, we ended up on the old-fashioned telephone and Kristian was most generous with his information and prognostications. He told me that his reading of the data indicated electric vehicle sales in Australia were steadily on the rise. CleanTechnica has reported on this here. “EV sales in May were up 25% (YoY) and 13% YoY (YTD). JET Charge believes there is a shift in misconceptions and myth busting for consumer barriers, whilst fleets continue to transition steadily across the market.”

Kristian believes that the data is telling us that Australia is transitioning from “a Tesla market” to a mainstream market. More makes and models translating to more choice. The market offerings are growing and diversifying, not just brands, but products. It is even moving now into utes (or utility vehicles, known as pickup trucks elsewhere). It’s not just SUVs anymore — we’re getting smaller vehicles and larger vehicles.

“People are figuring that an EV might work for them.” He believes that acceptance is broadening, and with more acceptance, Australia is moving from the early adopters to the early majority. “The market growth reflects growing acceptance of the technology, rather than early adopter focus on a single brand.”

I queried his comments about myth busting. There is still a lot of FUD — Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt — out there. He said that there is now a general acceptance that EVs can handle most driver needs. Range anxiety is no longer an issue. I brought up the recurring red herring of fire risk. He admitted that this topic has not yet entirely been resolved in the public’s mind. “In time, it will fade away naturally. The argument will run out of legs. The public will get used to EVs, and realise that they have a very high level of safety.” Kristian predicted that by 2030, electric cars will make up perhaps 50% of new vehicle purchases in Australia. I hope that the number will be higher, but I can wait.

I asked about the progress with fleet purchases. Kristian opines that fleet transition is slower than the general market because of concerns around residual values and servicing. He tells me that the market for new cars is usually 50% for fleets. At the moment, in the EV sector, fleets account for less than 30% once novated leasing is taken into account. In other words, the EV market is still mostly private buyers and fleets are a long way behind.

“Up till now, the leaders in the fleet market have been government and businesses with emissions reduction targets. These are the defining characteristics of early adopting fleets. Unless there is corporate commitment to emissions reduction that underpins EV adoption, the residual value issue (depreciation) is holding fleet buyers back.” I can readily understand this when looking at the rapidly dropping prices of new and second-hand EVs. My six-year-old Tesla isn’t worth very much anymore. New EVs launched a couple of years ago (for example, the BYD Dolphin and Great Wall Motors ORA) have reduced their NEW car price by 30%.

No wonder the bean counters are nervous. However, I expect there will come a time when second-hand fossil fueled vehicles will drop dramatically in price due to the inexpensive cost of a new EV.

Despite these headwinds, Kristian tells me that the largest part of JET Charge’s business is providing complex infrastructure solutions for fleet buyers. Other factors encouraging fleets to go electric include the federal government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which should bring more options and cheaper prices to the new vehicle market; the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption for electric vehicles; and a AU$2 billion expansion of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

The FBT exemption will continue until 2027. This means Australians can apply for novated leases and buy EVs at lower prices. The CEFC funding should encourage lower cost finance for EV infrastructure and lower priced vehicle loans for fleets. JET Charge’s Charging as a Service subscription, backed by ARENA funding, is an example of this.

“As your fleet electrification grows, so can the challenges. Rising costs, operational headaches, and unexpected risks could overwhelm your team. At JET Charge, we make it easy. JET Charge+, our Charging as a Service solution, takes the cost and complexity out of EV charging, bundling hardware, technology, and ongoing service into one simple monthly payment.”

We discussed the rate of public charger installation. I cited the example of a recent trip into NSW, using high-speed chargers that just weren’t there a few years ago. I ventured the naïve opinion that the rate of installation of public high-speed chargers was keeping up with the rate of uptake of electric vehicles. Kristian was a little more cautious. “It’s patchy. In some areas, yes, in some no. In regions where it makes sense financially, yes. Where there is consistent demand for public charging, it’s a good business. But where demand is patchy, notsomuch. This is why public charging is under invested in regional areas. New South Wales government are closing the gap on the business case for regional areas, but it will still be undersupplied during holiday periods when demand spikes. In this way it is similar to telephone coverage.”

CleanTechnica recently reported on the Karrinyap Bus Depot upgrade contract being awarded to JET Charge. I asked for Kristian’s thoughts on electric buses. In typical Australian fashion he said: “Well, there was a lot of sizzle for a long time, but now the sausage is here.” In case you don’t get it, it is a BBQ metaphor. “All state governments are keen. Financially, electric buses kill it. The states have been through trials of various electric buses. They are now comfortable with the technology. They’ve figured out what they need and are starting to deploy at scale.” As for why there aren’t the objections to electric buses that there are to cars, “Buses are just in the background.”

Kristian sees the lessons learnt from electric buses spilling over to trucking. “There are similar infrastructure needs.” He cited the Team Global Express experience. JET Charge is a business that is growing with the market.

Now to the rEVolutionary stuff — Paymate. “How long till we can just pay for charging with our credit card?” The Paymate solution grew out of a customer request for an agnostic payment solution along the vast length of the Western Australia Electric Highway. The time will come when you can tap a device with your credit card to pay for your charging. This would answer the needs of my relative from Norway, also.

The serious stuff dealt with, Kristian and I then had a chance for a personal chat. He is an engineer by training and drives a Tesla now, graduating from a BMW i3. He has been involved in the automotive industry for some time, having driven a Leaf and also a Mitsubishi i-MiEV. We reminisced about the “old” days. He commented that ICE vehicle powertrains have become overwhelmingly complex. EV technology is relatively simple by comparison, and is a sealed system with less that can go wrong. I commented that they were harder to customise for greater performance: “You can’t shave the head.”

Not only that, but the Chinese electric vehicles entering Australia’s market are not cheap and nasty — “they have all the fruit and great performance at an amazing price.” We reflected on what an amazing time to be alive — heading into a future that is bright and electric.