Shell, carmakers race to deploy European highway charging network

Royal Dutch Shell is working with top carmakers to deploy ultra-fast chargers on Europe’s highways as it seeks to get ahead of rivals in the race to remove one of the biggest obstacles facing the electric car sector, Reuters reported on November 27.

Shell’s agreement with IONITY – a joint venture among BMW, Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen – will initially bring high-powered docks to 80 highway sites in 2019, it said in a statement.

Power giants including France’s Engie and Germany’s E.ON, as well as niche players such as US start-up Charge-Point, are building vehiclecharging networks in Europe, but Shell said the IONITY technology is key to addressing the problem of journey distances.

While electric vehicles still account for only a small fraction of the global car market, the pace of growth and a sustained period of low crude prices is prompting oil com- panies to reassess century-old business models as the world moves toward cleaner modes of transportation.

Under Shell’s most aggressive forecasts, the company expects the global electric vehicle fleet to grow from about 1 percent of the auto fleet now to 10 percent by 2025, displacing oil demand of about 800,000 barrels per day.

Rival BP said in August that it was talking to electric car manufacturers on deals to offer battery recharging docks at its stations.

The number of electric vehicle charging points in Europe nearly tripled from 2014 to 2017 to almost 120,000, according to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory.

However, manufacturers have struggled to offer solutions for getting drivers to go beyond short journeys, mostly within cities, due to battery limitations, a lack of charging stations and long charging times.

With the IONITY tech- nology, cars with advanced charging capacity of up to 350 kilowatts will take as little as 5 to 8 minutes to charge, Shell said. It can take several hours to charge a regular electric car at present.

The 80 charging stations will be in countries including Belgium, Britain and France.