The electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure has received a massive boost with Royal Dutch Shell’s new plan to roll out 500,000 EV charging stations worldwide in just four years. The move has prompted investors to pour cash into the industry and businesses to become public companies, searching for the capital needed to meet demand.
EV’s will play a critical role in Shell’s decarbonization efforts to become carbon neutral by 2050. The company’s downstream director Huibert Vigeveno says Shell intends to have 2.5 million charging points installed worldwide by 2030. He told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”:
If you look at the decarbonization opportunities of this mobility sector, EV plays a crucial role. We announced a couple of weeks ago that we have 60,000 charging points in the world right now. We are going to move that to 500,000 by 2025 and 2.5 million by 2030.
The most significant deterrents to buying an EV are speed, reliability, and availability of charging infrastructure. Shell is confident it can change this by providing better access to various recharging options that are suited to the customers’ needs and lifestyles. Such choices include regular smart chargers for at-home use and high-powered fast chargers for quick top-ups between destinations.
The company aims to improve the customer experience of recharging at EV stations by cutting down charging times. It says on its website that its developing intelligent charging technologies to ensure the smooth integration of EVs into the electricity system. The systems would allow a user to adjust charge times and speed.
Vigeveno said:
I have an electric car myself, and if I charge my car at home, it takes hours. Well, that’s not something I want to do when I’m on the go. So, I have to offer it to you in a way that I can recharge it in 10 to 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, Shell plans to continue pushing biofuels as it increases efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Vigeveno said the company has a substantial position in biofuels already with its joint venture in Raizen, a company in Brazil that produces low-carbon fuels from sugar cane.
Vigeveno said:
Raizen is now 3% of the global production of biofuels. And I see many more opportunities for the first and second generation of biofuels and being part of our value chains.
Shell is among the world’s largest energy suppliers, so it’s good that it’s exploring more sustainable ways to serve the world’s electricity needs. It’s also intelligent since there will only be an increasing number of electric car drivers hitting the roads in the coming years.
Today, around 2-3 million of the 1 billion cars on the world’s roads are electric. According to the International Energy Agency, that number is expected to reach 300-400 million out of 2 billion by 2040. Perhaps even more since cars powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels are essential to addressing growing carbon emissions and air pollution in cities.
