Change needs a driver.

Co-Founder & CEO

Tim Washington didn’t set out to build an EV charging company.

In 2013, sitting around a kitchen table with his partner and co-founder Ellen Liang, he started thinking about what battery-powered vehicles could mean for Australia.

Armed with a law degree and years of experience working in his family’s textile business, Tim decided to step into a field he knew almost nothing about: EVs.

“I had little-to-no knowledge about electric vehicles or electricity, but I was closely following the EV market overseas and I had a hunch that battery-powered vehicles might change the future of transport,” says Tim.

So he got to work. Tim began shadowing his friend, electrician and fellow JET Charge co-founder Jay Robinson, learning the trade firsthand. He visited hundreds of homes to understand installation and battery technology, then went home to study how the EV transition was unfolding around the world.

Tim was one of Australia’s earliest Tesla reservation holders, number 166 to be exact.In 2014, he brought home a first-generation Tesla Roadster and pulled it apart to understand how the charging equipment worked. He and Ellen set up JET Charge’s first home charger from their garage and even offered their driveway to local Tesla reps who needed somewhere to charge between test drives.

Not long after, Tim secured early partnerships with Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover, and JET Charge began installing many of Australia’s first residential chargers.

“I’ve always been super optimistic about Australia’s EV transition,” Tim says. “It comes from logic. EVs are cheaper to produce, the market is rapidly expanding, and once Australians own an EV, they’re not going back. They are simply better cars.”

In his (rather little) spare time, Tim co-founded Chargefox in 2017, which went on to become one of Australia’s largest public EV charging networks. He was also a founding member of the Electric Vehicle Council and served as Chair for five years, helping push EVs higher on the national agenda and shape policy priorities including the National Vehicle Emissions Standard and Fringe Benefits Tax exemption.

Today, Tim is a recognised industry expert and regular voice at events, where he advocates for practical, technology-led solutions to decarbonise transport. He also shares the day-to-day of building a company and breaking down barriers to low-emissions transport on LinkedIn.

Tim’s ambition is clear: by 2035, every new vehicle sold in Australia, from buses to utes, should be electric. It’s a bold goal, but one he believes is achievable with the right focus, policy and infrastructure.

“In terms of ideas, we’re on the front foot,” he says. “The race isn’t against the rest of the world. It’s against ourselves and our 2050 targets.”

Under Tim’s leadership, JET Charge has grown into a team of more than 150 people across Australia and New Zealand, supporting major organisations including Woolworths, Coles, IKEA, TGE, DHL, CBA and IAG.

Reflecting on the journey, Tim says: “We didn’t know 95% of what we know now. So we didn’t have grand ambitions at the start. But with experience comes clarity. Now we want to make a real difference, not just as a business, but for the country.”

Co-Founder & COO

When Ellen Liang reflects on building JET Charge, she often comes back to something her father told her: “Eyes to the sky, feet to the ground.” 

It’s a philosophy that has stayed with her throughout her career. Think big, stay grounded and get to work. 

“You can have big dreams, but your feet stay grounded,” she says. “If you want real impact, you act. That’s the DNA of our company. We don’t sit in a meeting room talking about getting chargers in the ground. We actually get them in the ground.”

Ellen co-founded JET Charge in 2013 following a career in banking and finance law, corporate advisory, M&A and Treasury at Telstra. Together with Tim, she has helped grow JET Charge into a team of more than 160 people across Australia and New Zealand, raising more than $100 million in funding and supporting major organisations including Woolworths, Coles, IKEA, TGE, DHL, CBA and IAG.

Today, Ellen serves as Chief Operating Officer, helping shape JET Charge’s strategy, operations, culture, legal direction and public voice.“I love building companies,” Ellen says. “But more than that, I’m driven by the belief that we have the opportunity to create a new normal for society. The companies involved in this transition now are the ones that get to shape it.”

Ellen is passionate about positioning Australia as a global leader in clean transport technology and innovation. “We shouldn’t just import solutions.” she says. “We should create them.”

“There’s a huge opportunity for Australia to generate real intellectual property in EV technology and engineering. Not just in manufacturing but in managing and operating this infrastructure, especially in the commercial sector.”

Ellen’s experience in high-pressure legal environments shaped an approach built on resilience and high standards, something she has carried into the JET Charge world.

Looking ahead, Ellen’s five-year mission is bold: to deliver EV charging that costs nothing and emits nothing. 

“To hit our climate goals, we have to prioritise where we put our resources,” she says. “Transport is the obvious starting point, and I truly believe that infrastructure will be the silent hero of this shift.”