Interview with Giorgio Delpiano (Shell): “We want to be the leading global player in EV charging”

Shell recently announced plans to install 50,000 street EV chargers in the UK through ubitricity before 2025. As part of our EV Special, we spoke to Giorgio Delpiano, Senior Vice-President Fleet Solutions and E-Mobility at Shell, about Shell’s ambition to become the leading EV charging company in the world, how fleets will be changed by e-mobility and the challenges that EV poses for retailers. In Giorgio’s mind, this is clearly an opportunity and not a threat.

As Senior Vice President for Shell Fleet Solutions, Giorgio is responsible for Shell’s business mobility payment platform, one of the largest businesses within Shell, with over 250 thousand B2B customers and 7 million active fuel cards. He is Chairman of the Board at ubitricity and responsible for Shell’s rapidly growing E-mobility business and its licencing activities at 18,000 Shell-branded service stations in 55 countries.

How will e-mobility change fleets? And how does Shell ensure it continues to play a key role in providing energy for them? 

E-mobility will change fleets but fleets will also change e-mobility. About a third of the total miles driven globally is done by fleets, for either mobility of people or goods. Fleets are also growing in terms of share of total mobility. If you imagine yourself buying something from your sofa or taking an Uber, there is a shift from individual mobility towards business mobility. E-mobility will become critical for fleets because they have higher mileage than private motorists. With the lower operating costs of EVs, the long-term total cost of ownership becomes really interesting when you move from internal combustion engines (ICEs) to EVs. We see this change happening at different speeds around the world, but fleets will be materially changed by e-mobility, and in a positive way. If the total cost of ownership goes down, there will be an increase in the utilisation of vehicles and, therefore, more mobility and more miles driven. Not only that, but rapid uptake of EVs among fleets will also help drive uptake among private consumers.

As the largest provider to fleets globally, we have a task – to accelerate the transition of fleets to e-mobility. We are working really hard to do that. Our Shell card is now accepted at more than 250,000 charging points across Europe. With our companies Shell NewMotion, Greenlots and ubitricity, we also have unique capabilities as CPO (charge point operators), MSP (mobility service providers) and off-street charging providers. The Shell promise to fleets and consumers is that whenever you are out of home, you should not need to worry about charging your car. 

As an expert in fleets you have seen first-hand how they act as first adopters. When it comes to heavy-duty transport, do see a possible adoption of e-mobility? 

If you look at the landscape of energies available for fleets, on the light-duty end we see EVs as the clear solution. As you get to bigger trucks and longer distances, then the challenge for electric is bigger because of the dimensions of the batteries, and the power than needs to go into them. In that space, you almost see two steps: the first, moving from diesel to lower-carbon solutions like LNG and biodiesel. The second, a development of hydrogen and batteries. We know that the future of heavy-duty will be electric but it is too early to know which will be the best solution for our customers: hydrogen or batteries. For now, we need both developments and we are working actively with OEMs and customers on both fronts. 

There is a lot of fear among retailers that people will do most of the charging at home. Due to their high mileage and other characteristics, is that fear less prevalent with fleets?

If you look at the network of service stations we have today, they have been built over many years at locations with high traffic. What we know is that mobility will keep increasing. With EVs, the cost of mobility will go down, and there will be more mobility. Where will people charge their vehicles? Where they can, and where it is most convenient. Not everyone has the opportunity to charge from home. Actually, in Europe, the U.S. and especially China, the capability to charge at home is limited, and for fleets it’s even less. Fleet customers have different use cases and opportunities to charge their vehicles. Also, with higher average mileage, and more time spent on the road, the charging demands of fleet vehicles are also often higher than for private vehicles. On-street charging, private charging at fleet depots and high-speed on-the-go public charging are all parts of this puzzle, and they’re included within Shell’s growing offer to its customers.

What does the latest announcement of 50,000 EV street chargers in the UK mean for Shell and ubitricity? What are you trying to tell the market with such an ambitious plan? 

Hopefully we are communicating how serious we are about the transition to electric mobility, that we are committed to the Paris Agreement, and that we firmly believe that e-mobility will play a key role in decarbonising the transport sector. With ubitricity, we are able to address people who may have not yet bought an EV because they can't charge it at home. We hope local councils will pick up this offer because we need more charging on the street and we need effective collaboration between the public and private sector in order to succeed. There are already 3,000 ubitricity charge points around London and utilisation goes up daily. They are an effective, safe, low-cost solution.

Is the end goal to become a market leader in charging across all segments (street, retail spaces, mobility stations)? What are the other steps that you are taking in that direction?

Yes, we want to become the leading global player in electric charging, just like we are in mobility. We have 46,000 service stations around the world – it’s natural that we continue to lead. If you look at our goal of 50,000 chargers in the UK by 2025, that could be 25% of the market share according to some estimates mentioned (150,000 to 200,000 total chargers in the UK by that year). We are also building a lot of high-power chargers (HPCs) in the UK. Our new site in Fulham will be the first site to be fully converted to electric. It will be a good demonstration that we are moving in that direction with 10 HPCs available 24 hours a day. In terms of chargin, we are very active in almost every country in which we operate - UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, China, the U.S., Canada... In the short term, what is critical is that we learn about this new industry. The customer service side we already know extremely well – it’s only the specific products and services that are new.

A major challenge that gets mentioned often is the business model around EV charging. Many retailers wonder how they can make money out of it. How do you see this challenge?

Any new industry in its infancy has to find its path. Over time, the industry will find the right price positioning to deliver the right balance with utilization. A key driver for the profitability of EV charging is the utilization of those charge points. That's also driven by the number of EVs on the road. We are building ahead of the curve, but the vehicles will come – it’s not an ‘if’ but a ‘when’. The other part is to offer safe, clean and welcoming operations. That's the harder part to pull off. To build charge points is one thing but to operate them safely and get customers using them is another. That is why companies like Waitrose partner with us. With the Shell Recharge App and our loyalty programs, we also have the capability to bring customers to those locations. Over time customers will understand that the price of charging out of home has a different cost like many other activities and goods that are price differently if we get them at home vs. out of home (think of coffee for example). 

As traditional fuel retailers, is EV charging a threat or an opportunity for Shell? 

I believe it's an opportunity because it brings the same customers to our locations and sometimes new customers – they just come with a different vehicle. It gives us an opportunity to serve them differently. In the longer dwelling time, we can offer them services that we might not otherwise be able to. Running and operating a network of service stations, you see how they are increasingly becoming hubs for the communities around them. It's a business that will continue to do well if we evolve with the customer. 

Interview by Oscar Smith Diamante 

Related contents

Discuss