Charging infrastructure has been one of the major challenges for EV adoption and for a long time stake holders have been stressing on setting up charging stations at filling stations. Well! European oil companies are getting into this business. Shell has converted its conventional petrol filling station in London into a new "EV hub" and it does look impressive. The oil major, which currently operates a network of nearly 8,000 EV charging points, has set up an electric vehicle charging hub that features ten 175 kW DC fast-charging stations, built by Australian manufacturer Tritium.
The hub offers a comfortable seating area for waiting EV drivers along with a Costa Coffee store.
The new hub also offers a comfortable seating area for waiting EV drivers along with a Costa Coffee store and a Little Waitrose & Partners shop. It is also equipped with solar panels on the roof, and Shell says the chargers will be powered by 100 per cent certified renewable electricity. Quite a few urban dwellers in the UK, who are willing to become EV owners, don't have the option of installing charging station at home, as they have no assigned parking spaces, and rely on on-street parking. This is a tough problem, and the company will observe whether there charging hubs are a viable solution.
Shell launched a similar EV hub in Paris last year and the company is also pursuing other ways to provide charging for the drivewayless masses. It is targeting to install 50,000 ubitricity on-street charging posts across the UK by 2025, and is collaborating with grocery chain Waitrose in the UK to install 800 charging points at stores by 2025.
Source: InsideEVs
