[dparr59]

Shell has signed an agreement to buy 100% of ubitricity, a leading European provider of on-street charging for electric vehicles (EVs). The move represents a further step in Shell’s efforts to support drivers as they switch to lower-carbon transport. Subject to regulatory clearance, the deal is expected to be completed later this year.
Once the deal is completed, ubitricity is expected to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell.

Shell agrees to buy ubitricity, a leading provider of on-street charging for electric vehicles (EVs)

Broadening its current range of EV charging solutions, Shell supports the shift to low-carbon transport by offering electric vehicle drivers public on-street charge points integrated into existing street infrastructure.

www.shell.co.uk

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[Bill N]

Just noticed this too. Sounds particularly promising for Onto subscribers as may be another network that can be used without any additional charge (tbc).

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1353670559129870338

 

[davesul]

In the UK it looks like most of the existing Ubitricity charging points are in London and Liverpool and are 5kW. I don't find that as particularly exciting...

 

[cah197]

In the UK it looks like most of the existing Ubitricity charging points are in London and Liverpool and are 5kW. I don't find that as particularly exciting...

Which means you don't understand what they are doing.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

In the UK it looks like most of the existing Ubitricity charging points are in London and Liverpool and are 5kW. I don't find that as particularly exciting...

It's exciting if you want an EV, but live somewhere without a private driveway.
Ubitricity installs chargepoints into streetlights & bollards to allow charging in (for example) terraced streets.
They use the excess electricity available now that almost all councils have converted to LED streetlights.
The lamp posts are usually wired for around 25A, but LED bulbs now only draw 1-2A, leaving plenty to run a chargepoint.

 

[Bill N]

In the UK it looks like most of the existing Ubitricity charging points are in London and Liverpool and are 5kW. I don't find that as particularly exciting...

Yes not really for the vast majority of people, but if someone with no driveway lived on a street with Ubitricity chargers they might potentially be able to charge an Onto car ‘at home’ for no additional cost (if indeed Ubitricity chargers are included with the Shell Recharge fuel card roaming offer).

 

[dk6780]

Those of us lucky enough to be able to have home charging points are not their market.

If however you park in the street like some 40% of car owners then it is very relevant.

 

[alegar]

I find their pricing too high tbh, but it would be good to see a nationwide expansion for all those people living in terraced/similar houses.

 

[Bill N]

Incidentally, char.gy is a very similar network which is already included in the Shell Recharge roaming agreement - so it would seem to stand to reason that Ubitricity is also likely to.

Some people with Onto cars but no off-street parking are already making good use of the Char.gy network at no additional cost, so hopefully they and others should also be able to use Ubitricity lampposts too.

Like Ubitricity, Char.gy point are currently mainly concentrated in London, although they’ve also got decent coverage in Coventry it seems.

 

[Electrickery]

It's exciting if you want an EV, but live somewhere without a private driveway.
Ubitricity installs chargepoints into streetlights & bollards to allow charging in (for example) terraced streets.
They use the excess electricity available now that almost all councils have converted to LED streetlights.
The lamp posts are usually wired for around 25A, but LED bulbs now only draw 1-2A, leaving plenty to run a chargepoint.

I know Leds are more efficient, ie 1/10th of incandescent, but sodium street light bulbs were already very low energy.
LEDs are more efficient, but not drastically so (ie 120 lumens/watt vs 160 lumens/watt). I'm not sure that would give a lot of spare capacity, unless spread over a large number of street lamps?

 

[Electric Jamie]

I´m skeptical of this because it allows Shell to claim they are doing something eco and transitioning to a green future, they can say we have x y and z green investments, and make their business look like a mix of fossil fuels and greener stuff, when in reality it´s probably 90% plus revenue in fossil fuels (guess).

Buying up an existing green business actually does no good. If I owned a green business and Shell tried to buy it, I don´t think I`d sell it to them. What we need is for Shell to commit to being Paris compliant and agreeing to have its carbon footprint measured every year by a third party and cut by 10% a year i.e. no more new fossil fuel projects, scale down existing ones, use profits to reinvest in clean energy. We need these companies to create their own green businesses from scratch with their resources not just stamp their name onto what someone else has done.

If they actually invest a lot more morning causing the Ubitricity business to grow much more than it would have done had it not been acquired then fair enough but otherwise this is greenwashing.

 

[idiotzoo]

I know Leds are more efficient, ie 1/10th of incandescent, but sodium street light bulbs were already very low energy.
LEDs are more efficient, but not drastically so (ie 120 lumens/watt vs 160 lumens/watt). I'm not sure that would give a lot of spare capacity, unless spread over a large number of street lamps?

Indeed older sodium lamps in many residential streets were probably using less than 60w. LEDs are probably not using a great deal less, they offer maintenance and light quality benefits as well as lower power consumption. I wonder if the saving offered by LEDs is aggregate across a network.

 

[Electric Jamie]

Shell now says it wants to install 50,000 charging points by 2025. That does sound like a good number. I assume that this means the acquisition really might genuinely expand this business vs had it not been acquired.

However, it's still possible that this is greenwashing. Maybe they will announce 50,000, and install 5,000 which was what they intended all along.

It's also possible that they deliberately do a bad job of it to harm EVs.

I still don't trust them until these charging points are up and running reliably in large numbers. I think the government should watch their reliability closely.

What matters is the speed to which their oil business goes into decline, not how many charging points they put in.

Shell accelerates drive for net-zero emissions with customer-first strategy | Shell Global

Shell today set out its strategy to accelerate its transformation into a provider of net-zero emissions energy products and services, powered by growth in its customer-facing businesses.

www.shell.com

Shell aims to install 50,000 on-street EV charge points by 2025

Oil firm sets out plans to provide a third of Britain’s network needed to hit climate targets

www.theguardian.com

 

[Electrohead]

I'm increasingly thinking that letting an oil company own a charging network is like putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank

 

[Orrery]

I'm increasingly thinking that letting an oil company own a charging network is like putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank

Surely, you could Count (sorry) on Dracula to expand it ... ?