Shell buying UK’s biggest electric vehicle charging chain

Shell has agreed to buy one of Europe’s largest on-street electric car-charging companies to accelerate its move into low-carbon transport, Report informs referring to The Guardian.

The oil company, which faces growing pressure to cut its carbon emissions, expects the deal to buy the German car-charger Ubitricity to be finalized by the end of the year.

The car-charging network includes more than 2,700 charge points across the UK, or 13 percent of the existing market share, and more than 1,500 charge points across Germany and France.

Shell owns a network of more than 1,000 electric vehicle charge points located at the company’s 430 filling stations in the UK and has access to another 185,000 third-party stations.

The Ubitricity acquisition will help the company support drivers switching to low-carbon vehicles, Shell said.

The demand for electric vehicles in Europe has grown significantly over the past year. Thus, Volkswagen reported an increase in sales of electric cars in 2020 by 158 percent compared to the previous year - up to 212,000, Daimler, which owns the Mercedes-Benz brand posted a 228 percent growth, to over 160,000, and Renault saw a 100 percent increase, almost up to 116,000 vehicles.

Over the past 12 months, Shell’s share price has dropped 32 percent.