Tritium Opens R&D Facility in Los Angeles

Tritium announced the opening of a new facility in Los Angeles which will enable the company to increase production to cater to growing sales in North America. Along with the expansion, the company will also launch a new high-power charger for the U.S. Market.

The Tritium E-Mobility Innovation Center in Los Angeles will feature a testing facility to allow automotive manufacturers in the US to test vehicles for DC charger interoperability with the suite of advanced Tritium DC chargers. It will also provide expanded manufacturing and logistics capabilities for Tritium, along with a customer-focused Research and Development (R&D) facility to enable the company to create customized solutions to meet unique customer requests.

The company has also launched the RT175s DC High Power Charger (HPC), which was designed specifically for the United States Market.

“We outgrew our previous facility in Torrance faster than we ever expected, which is a testament not only to the team we have and the technology we can produce but also to the growing demand for electric vehicle infrastructure in the United States and in particular California,” said Jeff Wolfe, President, Americas, Tritium. “We are seeing greatly increased product demand, both with our award-winning Veefil-RT50 product and with the upcoming US availability of our RT175s DC HPCs towards the end of the year.

At 175kW, the RT175s can add 110 miles of range to an electric vehicle in 10 minutes. The RT175s are ideal for urban areas and vertical industry deployments, they are based on the Veefil-PK concept currently being installed across Europe with the IONITY network. Which is involved in a joint venture with BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and the Volkswagen Group including Audi and Porsche.

As part of the opening of the new facility in Los Angeles, Tritium is expected to increase staff numbers in the areas of logistics, engineering, sales, administration and manufacturing in the coming months.

The shift to a new, larger facility follows on the heels of a deal with SSA Marine to supply the Port of Long Beach in California with 33 modified RT175s HPCs – which will be equipped with Stäubli’s Quick Charging Connector (QCC) – to enable the fast charging of the port’s entire fleet of electric-drive terminal tractors automatically and simultaneously.

Last year, the company announced it was receiving a portion of $3.2 million in federal funding awarded to Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) by the Department of Energy, to develop an extreme fast-charging system that can connect directly to the distribution grid. EPRI allocated about $400,000 for Tritium to develop a custom version of its Veefil-PK high-powered charging head, along with providing input for system design and testing.

As part of the opening of the new facility in Los Angeles, Tritium is expected to increase staff numbers in the areas of logistics, engineering, sales, administration and manufacturing in the coming months.

Originally posted on Automotive Fleet