Shell Shows Us That Third-Party Charging Networks Have A Big Problem – CleanTechnica

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A couple weeks ago, news broke that Shell Recharge is getting out of the software market. Normally, getting out of software means not sending out installation files to customers anymore, allowing competing software companies to take care of people’s needs. But, in the case of EV charging, this means a lot more. Shell has been offering more of a service, connecting disparate privately-owned charging stations into a coherent network that EV drivers could use.

Instead of continuing to manage these third party chargers, the company is going to disconnect them from the Shell network entirely. This means that, assuming nothing is done, these chargers would go offline. It’s now up to the stations’ ownership to find another software and backend provider to work with. For most charging stations, the hardware supports open protocols and it wouldn’t be a big deal to join another network, so most of these stations aren’t going to go dead at the end of April. The company is also taking the additional step of working to make sure site owners have an easy time migrating to other providers that Shell already works with.

Shell told media that the goal of cutting off Shell Sky software customers was to focus on the stations the company itself owns, which currently totals more than 70,000 globally. The company told customers that it needs to focus on investing in areas where Shell has a competitive advantage, which implies that there’s no competitive advantage to supporting third party chargers and having them on the network.

Why Not Owning Chargers Drags A Network Down

To explain why Shell doesn’t think third party charging is working out, we have to take a quick imaginary trip to Baker, Nevada. I’ve never been to Baker, but plan to go there in a year or two as part of my Charge To The Parks project. By showing that EVs can make it out even to remote parks like the nearby Great Basin National Park, we can help potential EV buyers to feel more confident buying one.

But, there’s a problem in Baker: the town’s lone charger at the Border Inn Casino doesn’t look great on PlugShare. If you trust PlugShare’s rating methodology (it’s pretty easy going), you still only have around a 50:50 shot of getting a charge. It’s on the Shell Recharge app, but it’s not owned by Shell. So, when something goes wrong and the site needs expensive work, Shell can’t just get it done. The owners of the casino probably haven’t been seeing any real money come from the chargers, so they’re probably not going to invest in keeping them up.

This isn’t great for anybody involved. The EV driver gets to head to a nearby RV park for charging at up to 9 kilowatts instead of getting 50 kilowatts from the DC fast charger. At least the RV parks have cabins you can rent! The reputation of the Shell network is sullied when people see a Shell station in the Shell app strand them. The Casino also suffers some reputational damage and lost business when people can’t go there for a charge, but there aren’t enough EV drivers coming through Baker yet for that to hurt them much. The house always wins, right? At least for now.

One of the biggest competing networks that doesn’t own its chargers is ChargePoint. As I’ve repeatedly shared before, ChargePoint has had similar problems with owners not wanting to upkeep the stations. In response, the company now does their best to get new station owners to sign up for a service plan so that ChargePoint can quickly repair busted stalls instead of waiting for the owner (who may have gotten grant money to put the thing in) to have the cash for repairs.

Looking at what’s happening with Shell and what’s happening with ChargePoint, it’s pretty clear: the whole business model of running the software and network while others own and maintain the stations is a dead end. Any network that wants to compete going forward is going to need to either own the stations themselves or make good arrangements to make sure the stations are reliable.

Featured image by Shell.