Shell has announced plans to install 50,000 on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging points in the UK by 2025 to deliver a third of the network required to hit national climate change targets.
In February 2021, the company officially acquired ubitricity, a leading European supplier of local authorities’ on-street EV power points, with a network of around 3,600 chargers in bollards and lamp posts.
The lack of on-street charging in cities is seen as a significant obstacle in the government’s goal to replace fossil fuel vehicles with electric cars. The sale of new diesel and petrol cars will be banned from 2030 in the UK, except for efficient hybrid vehicles. The sale of all non-zero emission vehicles will be banned in 2035.
The UK government’s Office for Zero-Emission Vehicles currently pays 75% of the charge point installation cost. However, Shell will lure local authorities by offering to meet the upfront costs of installation that government grants do not cover, subject to commercial terms.
Ubitricity works with local authorities to install EV charging into existing street infrastructure, resulting in affordable EV charging accessible and convenient to anyone who needs to charge their EV while parked on the street. In addition, this solution is helpful for those who lack a private driveway but want to charge their EV overnight.
A National Audit Office report into reducing emissions from cars showed over 60% of urban households in England do not possess off-street parking, with that number increasing to 68% for social housing.
England has previously announced plans to introduce mandatory electric car charging points for new-build homes. The new law would require that all houses constructed, anywhere in the country, be fitted with EV charge points.
David Bunch, Shell’s UK chair, said:
It’s vital to speed up the pace of EV charger installation across the UK, and this aim and financing offer is designed to help achieve that. In addition, we want to give drivers across the UK accessible EV charging options so that more drivers can switch to electric.
UK transport minister Rachel Maclean points out that Shell’s latest announcement is “a great example of how private investment is being used alongside government support to ensure that our EV infrastructure is fit for the future.”
The Climate Change Committee’s UK progress report to parliament on June 24 recommends as a priority that there should be at least 150,000 public charge points in operation in the UK by 2025 to ensure they make the switch to greener, cleaner vehicles.
Shell aims for a global growth of 60,000 EV charge points today – including on commercial premises and fuel station forecourts – to about 500,000 by 2025 and 2.5 million by 2030. In addition, the oil company has pledged to invest in greener businesses and become net zero by 2050.
Thankfully, public EV charge points have increased in the UK in recent years. For example, according to RAC’s analysis of Zap-Map data, supermarkets accounted for 6.5% of all the UK’s public charge points in 2020. By December 2017, there were 542 EV charge points installed at supermarkets; then, by the end of 2019, there were 1,115. That means the number of EV charging points doubled in only two years!
In addition, Zap-Map data also showed that there are more public EV charging sites than petrol stations. It found that in May 2019, there were 8,471 public EV charging points across the UK with 13,613 chargers. Meanwhile, data from the Experian Catalist Market Summary Report revealed 8,400 fuel stations at the end of April.
With new charging sites being added every day, the UK’s charging point infrastructure is continually growing. From the end of 2016 to 2020, there was an increase of 220% in public EV chargers. According to the latest Zap-Stats from October 15, 2021, there are 16,460 EV charging stations, with 26,237 devices at those locations and 44,951 connectors within these devices.
In June, Britain’s regulator for gas and electricity markets (Ofgem) approved a £300m investment spree as part of the initiative to accelerate the UK’s shift to clean energy. The move will triple the number of ultra-rapid electric car charge points across the country.
