The reign of the conventional gas-powered is coming to a close and electric vehicles are poised to dominate. In the most recent development, last Friday the leading global oil company Royal Dutch Shell announced that it is buying one of Europe’s largest and most highly regarded EV charging providers, NewMotion.
Shell is going to install EV charging stations at existing Shell gas stations, in order to keep the Shell brand front and center as drivers switch to EVs. This move could help accelerate the EV trend. EV sales are rising but so far, most consumers have been skittish about investing thousands of dollars in new automotive technology. Anything that connects the EV experience with an existing, familiar brand could help shepherd new car buyers over to the EV aisle.
Shell has been working along those lines since at least 2010, when a company official suggested that Shell would transition from a gas station model to an “energy station” model for retail sales.
It began rolling out the first charging stations last month, courtesy of the company Allego. In keeping with the comfort-in-familiarity theme, the EV charging stations sport the Shell logo and look similar to gas pumps.
NewMotion acquisition by Shell will provide customers the flexibility to charge their electric vehicles at home, work and on the go.
NewMotion isn’t just any old leading charging station company. The research firm Navigant placed NewMotion at the top of its proprietary Leaderboard reporting program, in a comparative analysis of the 12 top public charging networks and EV charging services in major markets for plug-in EVs. Navigant’s criteria were: “vision; go-to-market strategy; partners; product strategy; geographic strategy; market presence; marketing and distribution; product performance and reliability; product and service capabilities; and staying power.”
Shell is planning to leverage NewMotion’s base of residential and business customers to draw more traffic to its public “energy stations.
Sourced from company PR