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Amid A Swift Roll-out, Ampol-backed Electric Car Charger Startup EVOS Raises $4 Million
- Business
- July 8, 2024
Just one year after EVOS funded $5 million ahead of its debut of consumer-grade solutions, a Brisbane-based designer and manufacturer of electric vehicle (EV) chargers for homes, companies, and commercial fleets has raised an additional $4 million to capitalize on high demand and early export ventures.
The company released the SB7 charger for regular EV users in December 2023. In April 2024, the EVOS-Fleet solution—which combines its hardware with an energy platform—was introduced, making charging easier and assisting businesses in controlling their fleet energy expenses.
The platform determines the best idle time for the charger to function, for example, during business hours or overnight during off-peak times.
After the $4 million in funding from current unnamed investors is completed, EVOS hopes to increase the current amount to $10 million.
The major source of the previous external funding, which included a $1.7 million seed round in 2021, was the gas and service station chain Ampol (ASX: ALD), indicating that the ASX-listed business is most likely the source. Additionally, EVOS is the authorized vendor for Ampol’s line of AmpCharge chargers.
In order to fulfill the growing demand for its charging solutions both domestically and internationally, the group hopes to expand manufacturing capabilities and support the growth of the company’s sales and marketing teams by raising the $10 million.
“We’re ramping up the rollout of new products and software rapidly, and demand for EV charging at home is only increasing from here on out,” says CEO Marcelo Salgado.
“Sales of EVs are up more than 30 per cent over the same period last year and that number will increase as OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) move further away from petrol-powered to zero emissions vehicle manufacturing,” adds Salgado, who co-founded EVOS in 2020 with chief experience and innovation officer Seshan Weeratunga and chief technology officer (CTO) Chris Crossman.
“Research shows that EV owners will spend most of their charging time at home or the workplace – and we know that Australians are keen on Australian products.”
While all of EVOS’s devices are for alternating current (AC) charging, which enables the use of a standard outlet, Tritium, the collapsed EV charger firm, concentrates on direct current fast charging (DCFC). Although it is slower than DC charging, batteries can be charged more easily due to the lower voltage.
A 7kW SB7 charger that can increase range by 35 km for every hour of charging time has been sold by EVOS since December. The company’s flagship Fleet Home 22 AC charger delivers 22kW of electricity per hour in comparison.
In order to help owners optimize their energy output and minimize the costs associated with charging at home, the platform solution now has the ability to adjust charge rate, speed, and power.
“What we’re trying to solve is not only the issue of charging, but the issue of energy,” says Crossman.
“Managing and understanding energy consumption will be a challenge for fleet operators and private owners alike, but our ecosystem perfectly manages when to charge based on feed-in tariffs, when energy is cheapest and also when solar is involved.”
Sales of EVOS are rising in Southeast Asia and India, where the company has also begun to have success outside. The company recently received money and support as part of Trade and Investment Queensland’s Go Global Export Program, joining 35 other exporters in this regard.
“Our products, which are easy to install, operate and manage, are in demand abroad and we’ve recently hired a regional head of sales to facilitate more sales abroad,” Weeratunga continues.
“The capital raise will help us ramp up production across the region, but our main focus is meeting the demand of Australian EV owners and fleet operators as the market here increasingly turns to zero-emissions driving.”