Shell has been steering away from its traditional oil and gas business and making significant investments in electric vehicles, and battery swapping and charging stations.
Shell Inc.’s Philippines-based subsidiary has partnered with Bengaluru-based Sun Mobility to deploy the latter’s battery swapping stations for two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicles at its outlets in the Philippines.
A selected number of Pilipinas Shell Mobility stations will soon deploy swap points that leverage Sun Mobility’s swapping technology consisting of smart batteries, quick interchange stations, and smart network (cloud-based IoT backend software). This will allow two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicles to swap batteries at Shell mobility stations in less than two minutes and provide a cost-effective solution with a significant range. The project is expected to launch within the first half of 2023.
Speaking on the occasion, Ajay Goel, co-founder and executive director of Sun Mobility expressed his delight to collaborate with Pilipinas Shell. He said, “We intend to bring our industry-leading technology along with our substantial on-ground experience, after having deployed 250+ swap points in 18 cities across India, powering over 55 million km and 3 million swaps so far.”
The partnership supports the recently passed Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA) that aims to promote sustainable electric transportation in the Philippines.
Jolo Valdez, e-mobility and innovations manager for Pilipinas Shell said, “Shell is happy to work with both the private and public sectors to develop solutions that will decarbonize mobility and transport. Both two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicles are projected to be a major use case for logistics companies and other fleet operators in the coming decades, and this pilot deployment aims to test the feasibility of smart battery swapping services and technology for the Philippines’ B2B use case.”
Shell is still one of the world’s largest oil companies, but lately, the oil giant has made several investments to diversify its revenue stream away from gas and oil-related products. It currently operates around 90,000 EV charging ports at homes, businesses, and Shell-branded locations, with an extra 300,000 stations available through its roaming networks.
By 2025, Shell looks to operate over 500,000 EV charging ports as it transitions its business to the new era of zero-emission electric vehicles.
Earlier this week, Shell’s US-based subsidiary announced the acquisition of EV charging operator Volta for $169 million in an all-cash transaction.
