A nice win for Tritium today, netting their largest order to date from no less than BP:

https://tritiumcharging.com/tritium-secures-largest-order-in-company-history-from-bp/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=241987847&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--EKskovF0rZcuP_pSS_NWI1ihHQRBfJJIbBmCE1yqF5icIMbYhaR8sbCJ5Yn5o_i2CC0uQotSX0fQHzwqHKJye_eJJnw&utm_content=241987847&utm_source=hs_email

Should hopefully see a boost to RFT's numbers in due course, pending their order backlog as @Wini has previously pointed out.

Short one: Looks like RFT are putting their Bi-directional charger production plans on ice for the time being:

See announcement here.

Curiously not marked as price-sensitive... In any case, my hot take is that this is probably a good move. Makes little sense to invest heavily into a speculative niche, when rich opportunities lie elsewhere. @Wini?

The AFR yesterday announced a new deal between Tritium and Box Energi to install its rapid chargers at 2,500 charging stations across the UK. 

https://www.afr.com/business/transport/tritium-wins-big-uk-electric-vehicle-charging-deal-20190724-p52a99

The mind-boggling potential here can't be understated. According to the article, Tritium have installed 3,000 fast-charging stations to date world-wide, and this single contract will potentially double that number:

"Many of the sites will have two Tritium Veefil-RT 50kW DC Rapid Chargers, which the company says is capable of adding 100km of extra range in 20 minutes of charging."

Needless to say, this contract would mean RFT is undervalued at recent SP levels, but it's very hard to value the company based on press releases that may not trickle down to us. I won't change my valuation until we see this play out either in the full-year report, or as a separate piece of guidance, but it's tempting to double my current valuation on this one piece of news alone for the revenue it would potentially generate over the next 5 years!

23/09/19

I'm having trouble reconciling the fact that this new 50kW EV charger is open to 'Expressions of Interest' from everyone on that Google form when the bulk of growth relies on an extension to the exclusive supplier agreement in place with Tritium next year. 

My suspicion is that Tritium are bringing things in-house. 

To add to that suspicion, this ad was posted a few days ago on Seek, and I had a Sparky friend look at it: 

https://www.seek.com.au/job/39962023?type=standard&searchrequesttoken=105a0787-fcbd-4c68-8a76-95640d5e3c2d

Whilst he wasn't able to confirm outright that this was for the design and build of DC rectifiers, he didn't rule it out, saying that it was too 'broad' in its role description to be certain.

I can't help think however that recent Tritium cap. raises from private equity and what looks to be an ever-increasing R&D spend suggest they are cutting their reliance on third parties.

Add to this recent insider selling at current prices, and the next year looks more uncertain than I'm willing to accept.

I've sold most of my holding on these signals in recent days and am closing my position on Strawman, but I hope that I'm wrong and that I'm reading too much into the tea leaves. I'd be more than happy to dip back in on good news, however, since there is a lot to like about the company in general.

Would welcome seasoned investors' views on this in the forum.