Speaking at today's Asia Pacific EV Charging Infrastructure 2023 conference in Singapore, Min Yih Tan, VP global mobility network at Shell, said the company aims to transform its fuel sites to e-mobility. "Our EV charging network has more than tripled in the last three years to 140,000. We are partnering with people like supermarkets to provide destination charging."
He said that on average Shell is installing a new EV chargepoint somewhere in the world every 15 minutes.
Tan's role encompasses helping to build Shell's low carbon fuels infrastructure including the development of its EV charging capabilities.
"We are going to pivot, but we will also continue in our traditional areas as this is a transition that will take several years," he said. "We intend to be ubiquitous in every country market we serve and will provide a suite of complementary solutions."
He added that regional imbalances in EV adoption are already starting to emerge, with China producing nearly half of the world's EVs in 2020. While India and the Philippines have been among the countries making slower progress, Tan highlighted research from Frost & Sullivan which showed the two countries are now exhibiting even greater interest in EVs than Germany, Norway and the USA.
Tan stressed the importance of collaboration and cooperation with other industry players, in addition to the need for increased public funding for charging infrastructure. "Without mandates it will not happen," he added.
Shell is collaborating on EV charging with a number of automotive industry partners including BYD and Porsche, in addition to Chinese specialist EV manufacturer NIO with whom it is operating a battery swapping initiative. Shell is also making EV industry acquisitions and in August 2022 bought SBRS, a Germany-based provider of charging infrastructure solutions for commercial electric vehicles, including e-buses, e-trucks and e-vans.
