The Shocking Truth Behind the EV Charging Station Giant's Bankruptcy

An EV charging pile giant collapsed.

This week, Tritium, the originator of charging piles, disclosed a bankruptcy plan to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Subsequently, the stock price plummeted 66% in one day, which can be described as tragic.

The experience of this unicorn is lamentable - it was founded in 2001, two years before Tesla, and is the originator of the industry. In 2022, Tritium was listed on Nasdaq through a SPAC merger, and its valuation was once as high as US$2 billion. Charging piles are the infrastructure of the new energy industry, but they have not waited for the explosion of new energy vehicles in Europe and the United States, causing Tritium to continue to suffer losses.

In 2024, Europe and the United States announced a slowdown in the electrification process, which seems to be the last straw that breaks Tritium's mind - since this year, the stock price has fallen by more than 90%

01 The originator of EV charging stations with a market value of 14 billion is about to go bankrupt

The story of Tritium begins 25 years ago.

It was 1999. David Finn was still an undergraduate at the University of Queensland in Australia. He, his classmates Paul Sernia and James Kennedy formed the "SunShark" racing team and participated in the World Solar Car Challenge WSC - one of the most prestigious solar events in the world. , and finished third.

What is less known is that Tesla co-founder and former chief technology officer JB Straubel also participated in the event in its early years. To this day, Tesla still sends people to participate in competitions every year to discover and reserve talents.

After this game, David Finn smelled a business opportunity. He and his classmates on the team decided to commercialize the lightweight motor control technology developed during the competition, and Tritium was born in 2001. You must know that Tesla, which will dominate the world in the future, will not be founded until two years later. Tritium is a well-deserved pioneer of new energy.

After some exploration, David Finn bet his business on DC charging pile manufacturing. In 2013, the second year after the Tesla Model S was released, Tritium released Veefil-RT, a 50kW DC fast charging pile that claims to be the world's smallest footprint. Since then, it has continuously launched multiple DC charging pile products such as 75kw, 150kW, and 350kw, becoming the first company in the world to implement plug-and-charging.

Initially, Tritium targeted corporate customers, including BP, Shell and IONITY, among others. IONITY is a high-power charging station network jointly established by BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Volkswagen. Tritium was able to quickly open up the European and American markets.

In fact, Tritium tried to enter the Chinese market in 2017. At that time, the company contacted Chinese companies that were willing to cooperate and installed charging piles in Jiangsu. Company executives are also optimistic about China, believing that the sales growth of electric vehicles here is stronger than that in Europe and the United States. However, the story of Tritium and China did not begin here, and there has been no further story since then.

Fast forward to 2022, Tritium was successfully listed on Nasdaq in the United States through SPAC. At its peak, the company's market value was as high as US$2 billion (approximately 14 billion yuan), and it was once regarded as the only reliable alternative to Tesla charging piles.

After its listing, Tritium continued to expand and established a new production line factory in Tennessee, USA. One is to bet heavily on the larger U.S. market, and the other is to be optimistic about federal subsidies for U.S. manufacturing.

But unexpectedly, within just one year, Tritium's share price fell by more than 90%, and is now less than US$4 million. As a result, investment institutions also abandoned ship and fled - in February this year, early investor Brian Flannery sold the last 5% of his shares for only $1 million.

According to the official website, the company has sold more than 13,000 charging piles to more than 40 countries around the world. Until last year, Tritium claimed to be the largest charging pile manufacturer outside China. However, now, what is waiting is the news of bankruptcy. This originator of new energy fell at the moment of the rise of electric vehicles.

02 Who killed it?

Looking back, this failure case deserves careful review.

Looking through Tritium's financial report, the secret of bankruptcy is hidden in it: from 2020 to 2023, Tritium's total revenue was US$46.96 million, US$56.15 million, US$85.82 million, and US$185 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 19% in the past three years. 52%, 115%, seems to be still rising.

But a closer look shows that its net losses were US$34.44 million, US$63.09 million, US$129 million, and US$121 million respectively. This company has been established for 23 years, but it still cannot make money and has never achieved profitability.

Compared with 20 years ago, the rules of the game have changed. Charging piles are no longer a competition between one or two companies.

Especially when Tesla builds charging infrastructure at a much lower cost and opens its charging network to all EV brands. Tritum has no new news, and its business model still relies entirely on hardware sales, rather than focusing on operations like other competitors.

It is unimaginable that Tritium is most complained about by users because the charging pile often loses power, which greatly reduces the experience.

After all, charging piles are the infrastructure of the new energy industry. Only when new energy vehicle users reach an objective volume can the balance of payments be achieved. However, in recent years, the new energy vehicle industry in Europe and the United States has experienced ups and downs, and new energy vehicles have never ushered in a major explosion. On the other hand, China is catching up from behind in the new energy vehicle industry.

There are no large users of new energy vehicles, so Tritium has been operating at a loss. However, the investment in charging piles is huge, and blind transfusion cannot solve the problem at all. At the end of 2023, the company's asset-liability ratio reached 152%, with only $29.42 million in cash on hand.

Caught in a battle for financial survival, Tritium sought a $90 million bailout from the Queensland government in October last year, but made no progress. To this end, the company announced that it would close its Brisbane, Australia, factory before Christmas, laying off hundreds of employees.

"Nasdaq listing did not have any effect on the company. It was not a good opportunity to enter the capital market as the board of directors originally thought." Tritium's dream of raising funds through listing was shattered.

Finally, it lacked a true understanding of the U.S. manufacturing industry and blindly expanded production without making a profit, which ultimately crushed Tritium.

03 Conclusion

The excitement is still before our eyes, but the fall of Tritium, the originator of the industry, is a wake-up call for everyone.

Like Tritium, whether it can make money has become a problem that new energy charging piles have to face. To this day, only a few companies in the entire industry have announced profits. After experiencing a fight, the most powerful players will be left on the table.

The war is still going on here.