By Peter Hannam
Leighton Contractors has taken over the licence of one of the country's fledgling electric vehicle (EV) support companies as the construction giant expands its network business.
Leighton's Visionstream unit, whose operations extend from work on the National Broadband Network to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, bought the key assets of ChargePoint, an operator of EV charging stations across Australia and New Zealand.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore at the unveiling of a ChargePoint EV charging station in 2010.
"The ChargePoint business provides the telecommunications network for the charging of electric vehicles," said Allan Bradford, general manager of Visionstream.
"We are excited about the ChargePoint business, we see this as a growth opportunity for Visionstream," he said.
"Visionstream purchased the exclusive licence to the ChargePoint products to expand and diversify our business in Australia and New Zealand."
Visionstream already had a close working relationship with ChargePoint, having built their network, the company said.
The companies have not released terms of the deal, which has been kept under wraps since its completion in May.
“It's a great fit for our business,” said ChargePoint chief executive James Brown. For Visionstream, “it's a moulding of their electrical and telecommunications into one product”, he said.
Founded in 2008, ChargePoint operates 57 plug-in points accessible to the public across major cities in Australia.
Infancy
The EV industry is very much in its infancy with the number of vehicles in Australia barely numbering in the hundreds. Several major car companies are preparing to introduce new models into the Australian market, a move that will offer more choice to consumers and lower the current steep entry price.
The exclusive ChargePoint licence would allow Visionstream to diversify its offerings by building connected charging stations for new and existing clients, the company said.
Visionstream will install and commission the stations as well as maintain and monitor them, similar to services it already provides for some of Australia's largest telcos, including the NBN.
ChargePoint's Mr Brown said Leighton was positioning itself for the expansion of the EV market.
“It's a medium-term business that will be determined by the speed of uptake of the electric vehicle market," he said.
"The more people get out and actually drive and use an electric car, the more momentum we find. If you start having one or two cars in a fleet it will push the industry to achieving a critical mass.”
Leighton Contractors and other divisions of Leighton Holdings may eventually supply some of that demand.
“Obviously moves are afoot to embrace [EVs] from a sustainability point of view and a fleet management point of view, but we're still in early days on that,” Mr Brown said.
ChargePoint's Australasian arm uses software developed by ChargePoint America, one of the largest suppliers of charging stations in the world.
The takeover may also give the company an edge over rivals in the market, although it is too soon to tell if expansion plans will be accelerated by the deal.
“It certainly gives us a lot more credibility and it will have to translate into a lot more confidence in the business,” Mr Brown said.
Mr Brown said he and his team expected to continue at the business after it was absorbed by Visionstream.