On Wednesday, Shell announced that it will build 50,000 EV charging points in the UK by 2025. They plan on doing that through Ubitricity, the UK’s largest EV charging network that Shell acquired earlier this year.
Ubitricity is founded in Berlin, and it operates in a number of European countries. It specializes in incorporating charging into existing street infrastructure like lamp posts and bollards, a technique that might make electric vehicle ownership more appealing to city dwellers without private driveways or designated parking places.
“Our integration of EV charge points into existing on-street infrastructure makes EV charging easy and accessible for everyone who needs it, where they need it. Particularly in larger cities where there is limited access to off-street parking, this is the solution many people have been waiting for to allow them to transition to EV ownership” -Ubitricity CEO Lex Hartman
As of right now, Ubitricity holds 13% of the UK’s car charging points market, with 3600 chargers installed. This is no small feat, as the Tesla Supercharger network accounts for 3%.
The UK currently has around 25,000 charging stations at this point in time. They are looking to expand it more than 10-fold by 2030. This is the year when they will employ a ban for all new gas and diesel cars.
Per a report from the National Audit Office that deals with carbon reduction in cars, more than 60% of urban households in England do not have off-street parking, and that number is rising due to social housing.
“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.” -David Bunch, Shell’s UK chair
