St Baker Energy Fund to invest $20 million in TrueGreen Mobility ahead of introduction of $35k BYD EA1 and T3
L to R: Trevor St Baker, StBEIF CEO Rodger Whitby, and TrueGreen Mobility CEO Luke Todd. Image: TrueGreen Group
This week, Australia’s e-mobility focused TrueGreen Group announced that the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund (StBEIF) will be injecting $20 million into its business, as the company looks to roll out two BYD electric vehicles in Australia later this year from $35,000.
The BYD T3 commercial van will lead the charge, offering a 50 kWh battery with 300 km (186 mile) range. The compact BYD EA1 — recently unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show — will follow later in 2021, and will offer customers a 500km range .
Luke Todd, TrueGreen Mobility chief executive said there was “pent-up demand” from businesses for electric transport and that TrueGreen Mobility expected to sell thousands of small vans nationally.
Speaking with The Driven, he stated “With our products, electric vehicles have now reached price parity with combustion engines, so a switch to EVs makes perfect economic, commercial, environmental and moral sense.”
Rodger Whitby, CEO of the StBEIF, said the $20 million financial injection was a “relatively small token of collaboration” and that the fund would spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars expanding Evie Networks’ public charging sites according to the Australian Financial Review.
A little history. If you don’t know the name Trevor St Baker, you probably should. An expert in electricity utility planning in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, he ultimately went on to found a number of private power development companies, with investment in Australia, South East Asia, and the United States.
Mr. St Baker is pro-nuclear and coal power, and has publically criticised the idea that renewables can provide baseload power while advocating for coal power stations to delay their closure.
Nexport’s $35,000 BYD T3 van. Image: Nexport Australia
In 2013, he formed the StBEIF, of which the primary purpose was to invest in energy start-up businesses, and that’s where Tritium — an EV charging hardware company you may have heard of — comes in.
The StBEIF is focused on investing in electric vehicles, despite its history in the oil and gas sectors. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr. St Baker said “People are marching in the street for decarbonising and net-zero emissions and they’re really serious about it,” he said. “Decarbonising and electrifying the transport sector is an absolutely essential part of that.”
Trevor St Baker, Luke Todd, and Rodger Whitby with a BYD T3 electric van. Image: TrueGreen Group
The StBEIF’s $40 million ($31.051 million USD) investment in Tritium paid off, with the Australian-based company set to list on the NASDAQ through special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Decarbonisation Plus Acquisition Corporation II, itself owned by asset management firm Riverstone Holdings. The enterprise value is expected to be $2.2 billion ($1.708 billion USD).
The StBEIF will also assume a seat on the board of TrueGreen Group. The fund also backs Australian high-speed EV charging company Evie Networks.