In Case You Didn’t Know, Oil Companies Have Been Buying Up EV Charging Networks
BP, Shell, and Total, three European oil majors, have been snatching up assets all along the EV charging value chain. Shell has agreed to buy 100% of the European charging network ubitricity, according to the latest news. Founded in Berlin, ubitricity works in a number of European nations and claims to have the UK’s largest public electric vehicle charging network, with over 2,700 charging stations (a 13 percent market share). In addition to public charging networks in Germany and France, the business has constructed approximately 1,500 private charging stations for European fleet customers.
Ubitricity specializes in integrating charging into existing street infrastructure like lamp posts and bollards, a technique that could make electric vehicle ownership more appealing to city dwellers without private driveways or allotted parking places. “By incorporating electric vehicle charging stations into existing on-street infrastructure, we make EV charging simple and convenient for everyone who needs it, wherever they need it.” This is the solution many people have been waiting for to allow them to convert to EV ownership, especially in larger cities where off-street parking is scarce,” stated ubitricity CEO Lex Hartman.
What’s driving the oil companies’ EV charging investments? When Shell and others say they’re prepared for a post-petroleum future, the optimist believes them. “We want to encourage the growing number of Shell customers who wish to move to an EV by making it as straightforward as possible,” István Kapitány, Executive Vice President of Shell Global Mobility, said of the ubitricity acquisition.
Shell has stated that it hopes to become a net-zero-emissions company by 2050, as have BP and a few other fossil fuel companies. Shell is set to announce a plan to achieve its net-zero target at an upcoming strategy update, according to the Financial Times.
The skeptic (or conspiracy theorist?) wonders if the oil companies’ true goal is to choke the EV charging industry over time, making EVs less appealing than hydrogen-powered vehicles, which are made from fossil fuels. Shell has almost 1,000 DC chargers installed at its 430 retail gas stations. It is also one of the major hydrogen providers in the world, with dozens of hydrogen fuelling stations in Germany, as well as a few in the United Kingdom and California.
“While top management at [Shell] intend to increase spending into cleaner businesses, they are also leery of relinquishing lucrative legacy hydrocarbon divisions too soon,” writes the Financial Times, adding that “demand for petrol and diesel is anticipated to stay high for decades to come.”
