Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy one of Britain’s largest electric vehicle charging networks as i3 Feb 2021 12:23
Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy one of Britain’s largest electric vehicle charging networks as it pushes further into the power sector.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major said yesterday that it would acquire Ubitricity, which operates more than 2,700 public charging points, for an undisclosed sum.
Ubitricity, founded in 2008 in Berlin, specialises in on-street charging points that can be installed in existing street lights or bollards, which it says removes the need for planning consent and reduces set-up costs.
Shell said that Ubitricity had the largest public electric vehicle charging network in Britain, with a 13 per cent market share, according to Zapmap, a third-party website. Zapmap ranks the company just ahead of BP’s Pulse network, which it says has more than 2,500 branded public charging devices.
BP also lays claim to being the largest public network of electric vehicle charging points in the UK and says that it operates more than 7,000 such stations. It is understood that the higher figure reflects the fact that most of BP Pulse’s charging devices offer multiple connections.
Shell is Europe’s biggest energy company, with profits of $15 billion last year primarily from producing and selling oil and gas. It is expanding into the electricity sector with ambitions to become one of the world’s biggest power companies. It is due to report full-year results next week after a tough 2020 in which it was forced to cut its dividend for the first time since the Second World War.
Shell already has about 100 electric vehicle charging points on its British service station forecourts and is aiming to double that by the end of this year. Globally it has about 1,000 such installations across 430 retail sites. It also owns New Motion, which provides access to a network of almost 180,000 public charging points worldwide, including more than 3,000 in the UK.
Shell said that the acquisition of Ubitricity was expected to be completed later in the year. Its shares fell 39¼p, or 2.9 per cent, to £13.20½.
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