Tritium gears EV fast chargers for flexible infrastructure operations
Tritium Holdings Pty Ltd (Tritium), a global developer and manufacturer of direct current (DC) fast charging technology for electric vehicles (EVs) last month unveiled its PKM solution, defining the company’s new architecture and line of fast EV chargers.
As explained by Tritium:
The PKM line is designed to break the linear relationship between the power conversion equipment, which manages the electrical grid feed to the site, and charger power output, which manages electricity delivery to an EV.
This development grants charge point operators the freedom to share one central source of converted DC power around the site. Since the infrastructure is shared, less equipment is needed, enabling operators to deploy more charging stations and increase the number of fast chargers available for EV drivers.
The PKM platform represents the company’s most innovative line of fast chargers, greatly expanding the company’s approach to modular and scalable charging architecture, with a unique system focused on providing customers with the flexibility to size charging sites for today’s demand and also easily scale infrastructure to meet future site and EV charging capabilities.
“One of the biggest challenges in the EV charging industry right now is increasing utilization without increasing driver waiting times for a charge. Operating and capital costs are traditionally proportional to peak power requirements, yet the revenue our customers generate comes from average power delivery,” says Tritium Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer David Finn. “The PKM provides a new, distributed architecture that delivers unique site capital efficiency and scalability. With the PKM150, we’ve built a strong foundational model for this new platform that will offer our customers the opportunity to deploy more capital efficient sites, which will in turn allow them to build more charging sites across their networks.”
Patented liquid-cooled modular design
The PKM150 is the first fast charging system to be announced on the company’s new PKM architecture. The PKM150 system leverages Tritium’s patented liquid-cooled modular design, pioneered with the company’s award-winning RTM fast charger, and provides customers with the opportunity to choose between 50kW, 100kW or 150kW of dual-cable charging station power to meet their business needs.
The modular construction of these chargers makes them faster and easier to service and build compared to non-modular systems. Through the modular design, Tritium can provide customers with chargers, components and modules that have been rigorously field tested and are interchangeable between models. This vision is already being realized, with up to 80% of the same components being used between the RTM and PKM150 charging stations.
“Our customers are critical to Tritium’s success, and through our more than ten years of fast charging experience they have provided Tritium with the valuable insights and a description of the features they need to optimize their business,” said Tritium Chief Revenue Officer David Toomey. “The PKM150 leverages customer feedback along with the data and knowledge Tritium has acquired from delivering more than 3.6 million high-power charging sessions, to provide Tritium’s highest degree of product performance and flexibility. With the PKM150, our customers can truly grow and scale their fast charging infrastructure to meet rapidly evolving industry, growing driver and battery technology demands through our advanced hardware and software.”
DC microgrid is key
The DC microgrid unique to the PKM architecture transmits power across the system at 950V DC rather than 400V alternating current (AC). This design reduces the gauge of cabling in half, which can lead to up to tens of thousands of dollars in savings for small charging sites and hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for large charging sites.
“This is an exciting time for the e-mobility industry. We’ve reached a tipping point and transportation as we know it is experiencing a major transition. Economies are moving from oil powered transport to transport powered by electricity, and with that, we believe internal combustion engine vehicles are becoming an obsolete technology,” said Jane Hunter, Tritium CEO. “Tritium is well-positioned to be a continued leader within this industry and grow our global market share, and the PKM150 only further solidifies our intention to be the world’s premiere fast charging provider. The PKM150 and wider PKM product line will continue Tritium’s market-leading position as the only fully liquid cooled IP65-rated DC fast charger. Tritium continues to innovate, with the PKM architecture providing unparalleled site scalability and the optimal configuration for our charge point operator customers to maximize their site revenue.”
This announcement of the new product line comes on the heels of the announcement of Tritium’s record-setting sales in the third calendar quarter of 2021, and precedes an anticipated public listing for the company on the Nasdaq in January 2022, through a business combination with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation II (NASDAQ: DCRN, DCRNW, DCRNU).
