Joe Finnerty

Oil companies won’t miss the chance to take a slice of the electric power pie

“More electric cars would put a sizeable hole in the profits of oil firms like Shell or BP”

LINE up a list of big businesses you’re unlikely to shed a sympathetic tear for, and at the top of most will be banking corporations and oil giants. They’ve been making billions for years, cashing in on everyone else and somehow surviving amid financial crashes.

But for oil companies, there lurks a growing uncertainty as motorists continue to edge towards electric vehicles – already there are nearly 30,000 on UK roads. Sure, in the short term, these are predominantly plug-in hybrids and require filling up in a conventional way. But look further into the distance and the goal is to have almost all cars and vans in the UK zero emissions by 2050.

Such a move would put a sizeable hole in the profits of oil firms like Shell or BP. It’s a problem that hasn’t gone unnoticed in the boardroom, though, and Shell has this month revealed it’s planning to introduce electric charging points (and hydrogen bays) as early as 2017.

In the past, Shell has championed biofuels as the way forward, but with ultra-low emission vehicles backed so extensively by the UK Government (most recently by a £600m investment and extension of the plug-in grant to 2018), it’s seen the need to branch out.

The move would put Shell in direct competition with the Tesla-exclusive charging network and Ecotricity, which currently has a monopoly on motorway sites and has controversially started making drivers pay to plug in.

There’s no detail on how much Shell may charge for its electric stations, but when oil companies are concerned, you can be sure they won’t be out of pocket for long.