The former senior researcher for the High Court and barrister who also headed up Phantom Works, Boeing’s advanced prototyping arm for its defence and security products, said Tritium and companies like it were benefitting from what Brisbane offered.

“There is top tier engineering work going on at Rheinmetall, L3,  BlackSky, Gilmour Space … Brisbane does now rate in the global innovation index as one of the top 100 science and technology clusters in the world and in the top 50 globally for science and technology intensity,’’ Hunter told a Morgans breakfast function.

“Our Australian tertiary education is rating in the top 10 and we do rank very highly (for our) regulatory and business environment.

“We do have this ecosystem of growing advanced technology companies and a growing start-up economy in Australia and in Brisbane in particular.

“We are perfectly placed to capitalise on these strengths and diversify our economy into an advanced technology powerhouse … where we benefit from the advanced technology developed here rather than sell it off overseas.’’

Tritium will list on the American Nasdaq in February after a deal to merge with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company and Hunter said it had a big few years ahead of it.

It will release 17 new products over the next five years.

“We will have 25 kilowatt DC home wall unit,’’ she said. 

“What you will notice when you plug the (electric) car in via the cords that come with it is that  it takes 21 to 22 hours to fully charge the car. It won’t charge overnight. 

“You will probably want a wall unit. Tesla sells one that charges in seven to eight hours.

“You do want that ability to turn up at 8pm at night and be charged by midnight. You just don’t want to be limited. We think that will be a great seller by 2023.’’

She said when she joined Tritium the company “did have the tiger by the tail’’ with a clear need to scale the business to keep market share. Now she thinks it can grab the number one spot in North America and Europe.

“The Tritium story was difficult to beat. The most exciting bit in my view was that here was an Australian company that looked to have a world beating technology in an industry that was right at the tipping point,’’ she said. 

“When I joined in 2019 we were right on the cusp of the tipping point. And then it was really just after Covid it tipped right over.’’

Hunter said if there were minimal redemptions in its Nasdaq listing, Tritium would have cash to the balance sheet of $US274 million. 

“That’s a fortress balance sheet for Tritium. We need about $68 million to achieve positive free cash flow in the company by 2023,’’ she said.

“It should provide us with cash to scale up but also take the number one position in our key markets of North America and Europe where we have number two position.

“The exciting thing is we will remain an Australian company listed on the Nasdaq, which is exactly the outcome we were all hoping for and it’s certainly what we need to do to increase the diversification of the Australian economy … keeping our advanced technology and intellectual property and commercialising it ourselves and reap the long term benefits those export businesses make.

 “Tritium will be a great contributor to the Australian economy with 95 per cent of our products exported.’’