Shell plans 50,000 electric car charging points

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell unveiled plans Wednesday to instal up to 50,000 electric car charging points in Britain in the coming years.

Shell said in a statement that its Ubitricity subsidiary aims to reach the target by late 2025, under the company’s transition toward green energy.

Ubitricity, which was founded in Germany in 2008 and purchased by Shell earlier this year, provides on-street electric vehicle charging across Europe.

It already has 3,600 charging points in Britain, using existing street infrastructure such as bollards and lamp posts.

“The move is part of a wider effort to bring more electric vehicle charging availability to the millions of UK drivers without private parking and help local authorities get their charging networks up and running as quickly as possible,” Shell said.

The UK government’s Office of Zero Emission Vehicles currently pays 75 percent of the cost for installation of on-street electric car charging.

The oil giant is prepared to pay remaining costs for local authorities to instal Ubitricity charge points.

Britain plans to ban sales of high-polluting diesel and petrol cars from 2030 as part of efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

That has helped spark a raft of investments in electric car manufacturing facilities and also in charging infrastructure.

Rival UK oil major BP had bought EV charging firm Chargemaster in 2018, as it also bet on booming demand in the coming decades.

Shell had said in June that it would accelerate plans to cut carbon emissions following a court order in the Netherlands.

The court in The Hague ordered Shell to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 in a landmark victory by climate activists with implications for energy firms worldwide.