Unreliable Tritium EV Chargers Hurting NRMA Reputation, They Need to Share Replacement Plans

A few days ago I visited the NRMA electric car charger at Yass in rural New South Wales. I was staying in town overnight heading back to Sydney after a holiday EV road trip.

Luckily I didn't need a charge at NRMA Yass because it was listed as broken in the NRMA app and Chargefox app.

Image by - Neerav Bhatt

NRMA Yass was really handy for many years providing free charging to EV drivers without needing an NRMA membership.

While NRMA pioneered regional NSW EV charging when no one else would, their currently unreliable old Tritium chargers are overshadowing that bold leadership.

As an early NRMA EV charger user, I'll always be grateful for their vision - but we can't ignore current reliability issues that are causing real frustration for many EV drivers.

Image by - Neerav Bhatt

I remember using NRMA Yass several years ago during a family EV road trip, when it was the only electric car charger in Yass and back then it was a lifesaver.

More than 4 years after this Tritium Veefil 50kW charger was installed by NRMA in Yass in late 2020, it has become really unreliable.

At the time years ago when NRMA chose Tritium chargers they were supporting an Australian business making chargers in Australia.

Then Tritium failed and the core Tritium assets were sold to an overseas company so it's no longer a local business that needs to be supported.

This particular model Tritium Veefil 50KW charger is really unreliable and has a terrible reputation amongst electric car drivers in Australia like myself.

It's had a good run, it's had hard use. Now though it's broken and NRMA says they're waiting for parts from a supplier.

I think what they should really do is rip it out and throw it in the bin and put a new one in.

I think NRMA need to do this ASAP at Yass and all their other locations that still have old Tritium Chargers.

Ideally replacing them with a new model from a different brand that has a better reputation amongst EV drivers such as ABB, Kempower, Sinexcel, eLumina etc.

To their credit the NRMA has been quietly removing and replacing old Tritium Chargers on their Network for the last 6 to 12 months and replacing them with much better ones from various suppliers including Kempower, ABB and eLumina.

An example is NRMA Karuah which now has fast ABB Chargers which I've tried and they worked reliably.

Image by - Neerav Bhatt

In my opinion the NRMA's main mistake was doing Tritium replacements so far quietly without any announcements, so NRMA didn't get much credit from the EV community or media coverage.

Also NRMA hasn't publicly made it clear what their plans are for replacing existing unreliable chargers and installing better new ones instead.

This transparency would help reduce how upset many of the NRMA EV charging customers are.

In comparison RACV was completely transparent and told me publicly in early 2024 that given increasing utilisation, lack of spare parts and low reliability of their first-generation Tritium ultra-rapid charging stations, RACV would replace all their Tritium chargers with a different brand called Kempower.

Then RACV continued this excellent transparency and gave me an update later in 2024 about progress with the upgrades which were completed before Christmas 2024 as far as I know.

It would be a terrific New Years present for electric car drivers in New South Wales and those transiting through NSW if all the NRMA Tritium chargers in our state were removed and replaced.

Note: at the time I was making the video below, 50kW NRMA Tritium chargers in Yass, Albury, Gundagai, Gunnedah all had broken status.