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Is Shell buying charging stations to slow EV adoption?

Discussion in 'EV (Electric Vehicle) Discussion' started by pasta4breakfast, Sep 22, 2024.

  1. pasta4breakfast

    pasta4breakfast Member

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    I used to use a few charging stations owned by Greenlots. Shell bought Greenlots in 2019. About a year or two ago all three of these charging stations became non-operational. They still haven’t been repaired years later.

    Shell bought Volta around the end of last year. They slowly transitioned the branding on the charging stations at my local mall and just switched everything over to the Shell app a month ago. Ever since then, 3 of the 4 chargers I used to regularly use are non-operational. I first reported the issue to Shell on 8/30/24. The last time I checked on Thursday, they were still not repaired.

    I wonder if Shell is buying up charging stations without plans to maintain them. This could slow EV adoption, as EV users will complain to friends about the terrible reliability of public charging. Now their friends will be less likely to buy EVs and thus there will be more ICE vehicles on the road buying Shell gas for longer. Then if the EV charging stations become more profitable than selling gas, they can ramp up the maintenance on these stations later.

    This may not be the case, as Volta and Greenlots weren’t fantastic at maintaining their stations. It may have taken them a week or two to repair a down charging station, but not months or years. Maybe Shell is focusing on maintaining L3 chargers over L2 chargers. Do other people have the same experience with L3 chargers? Maybe the free (add supported) charging at Volta stations and the low price ( < $0.30 per KWh) for charging at the old Greenlots stations provided no incentive for Shell to devote resources to get them back up and running. Maybe this is just another example of poor maintenance of non-Tesla EV charging stations that isn’t unique to Shell. It seems like the government and EV charging companies are focussed on building out the charging network, but not focussed enough on maintaining the existing network. However, I feel Shell is several times worse than Charge Point for L2 charging.
     
    #1 pasta4breakfast, Sep 22, 2024
  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    That fits best.
     
    #2 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Sep 22, 2024
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  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    It is too easy to confuse incompetence with malice.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #3 bwilson4web, Sep 23, 2024
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it depends on where you travel. if you read ev forums, some have better or worse luck with different brands while others sometimes have the opposite.
    shell isn't the only one with maintenance problems, and often highly regarded.
    tesla is the only system that nearly always gets great reviews world wide.
     
    #4 bisco, Sep 23, 2024
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  5. pasta4breakfast

    pasta4breakfast Member

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    Agreed, especially when there is a perceived conflict of interest.
     
    #5 pasta4breakfast, Sep 28, 2024 at 11:19 PM
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Not sure. Shell stations don’t work with my car. I get an error.

    Also, they’re low amperage stations (200A) so cars that need high amperage (like Teslas or other high peak power 400V cars like Volvo/Polestar) will have terrible speeds. Even if I could charge, in theory, I’ll be in the 140-150kW range (they advertise 180kW because they output 900V at 200A) but I can’t test because I can’t connect to them.

    Up here, Petro Canada was the first to place chargers at their stations to connect the east and west coast. But since their announcement a few years ago, reliability of their station has gone downhill. Look at PlugShare and most of their stations have a repair logo. Even if they’re working, they’re at reduced power. It’s a far cry when I used them in 2022 at full power.
     
    #6 Tideland Prius, Sep 30, 2024 at 2:20 PM
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