Shell (LON: RDSA) To Buy Electric Car-Charging Company Ubitricity

Footsie-listed British-Dutch multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell (LON: RDSA) added a new dimension to its portfolio after it had decided to buy one of Europe’s largest on-street electric car-charging companies. In a bid to accelerate its move towards lower carbon emissions, the FTSE 100-listed oil major has decided to buy UK's largest electric-vehicle charging network Ubitricity.

This move could help the company in transforming its image from a carbon intensive energy company to clean energy solutions provider. Notably, the deal is expected to complete by the end of 2021. The UK might ban the sale of conventional vehicles by 2030, and therefore, Shell’s move can help it in deriving growth for its stakeholders.

Shell has been promoting green energy mobility solutions. The country’s first electric vehicle charger of 150kW was set up by Shell in 2019.

(Image Source - © Kalkine Group 2020)

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There is a lot of pressure on all oil and gas majors to reduce carbon footprint across the globe by the environmental activists and governments. The pandemic has pushed the businesses along with governments for sustainable development. Moreover, these oil and gas majors are not in the best of their health as they are under financial stress due to falling prices of crude due to low demand in the wake of travel bans and lockdowns.

In the sphere of car-charging infrastructure, Ubitricity controls a market share of 13 per cent and has a network of more than 2,700 charge points across the UK. The electric charging station provider helps in empowering the existing infrastructure with intelligent solutions. The charging solutions provided by the company make owning an electric car more convenient.

The company offers on-street options such as the lamp-post charging, which allows the users with a lot of convenience. On-street charging is believed to be vital for the success of electric mobility solutions. Ease of access to charge stations just like gas stations is a must to encourage car buyers to look forward to EV options.

The reason why Ubitricity is so successful is because of its charging network. The charging infrastructure sticks out because the charge points are incorporated into the existing on-street structure. This can be done at a reasonable cost in contrast to building charge stations from scratch.

Also read: BP draws investors’ attention over lowering carbon footprint

Oil major BP Plc (LON: BP.) aims to create UK’s largest car-charging network consisting of nearly 7,000 charge points. The oil major bought supplier of charging infrastructure Chargemaster for £130 million in 2020.