Shell inks deal for German EV charging company Ubitricity

January 25 (SeeNews) – Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc (AMS,LON:RDSA) has agreed to acquire Ubitricity, a German provider of on-street charging for electric vehicles (EVs), as part of its strategy to facilitate the shift to low-carbon transport, a statement by the target company showed on Monday.

The financial parameters of the deal were not communicated.

The transaction, which will see Ubitricity become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell, is expected to close later this year.

Berlin-based Ubitricity claims to be the largest public EV charging network in the UK with over 2,700 charge points or over 13% of the current market share. The company also operates domestically and in France, as well as offering private EV charge points for business fleets in Germany. Ubitricity works with local authorities to integrate EV charging into street lighting poles and bollards.

The acquisition will enable Shell to scale up its existing EV charging offering, which includes over 1,000 charge points at some 430 filling stations as well as access to over 185,000 affiliate and partner network sites worldwide.

The announcement comes as French utility EDF was last week reported to be drafting plans for a potential initial public offering (IPO) of its British EV charging company Pod Point.

Shell rival Total, for its part, has been actively boosting its EV charging capacities in the UK and Germany through the respective acquisitions in late 2020 of Bollore Group unit Blue Point London as well as Charging Solutions, the EV charging infrastructure unit of family-owned German Viessmann Group's subsidiary Digital Energy Solutions.

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