SINGAPORE – The prime business strategy that global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell will be pushing on for its deployment of electric vehicle charging facilities is to synergize it with its existing mobility stations, according to a global executive of the company.

In an interview with Istvan Kapitany, global executive vice president of Shell Mobility, he noted that “the rollout of Shell Recharge in the Philippines has already started because there’s already a need for it,” although he qualified that it has not been picking up that much speed because patronage of electric vehicles in the country is still on its very gradual stride of acceleration.

He emphasized “there are no huge number of Recharge stations at this stage because huge number of EVs has yet to happen for the Philippines, but it is a premium service that we now offer in some of our mobility stations.”

Kapitany added “we are going to develop the fleet further; and when we see that it is already growing; then we would consider more and more installations.”

Shell Recharge is the EV charging facility that the multinational company has been deploying in various markets worldwide – primarily in energy markets where EV adoption had already been on faster growth trajectories, such as in China and the European markets.

The EV charging facilities of Shell are of varied configurations – including slow, fast- and ultra-fast charge points that it has also been bringing to its core markets in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

“In the Philippines, if you go to the service stations, we basically have all the services that customers need…we’ve been selling food, coffee and we’ve been offering services and other amenities aside from fuels. And we have been adding services, not just in convenience retail but also charge points for EVs,” he stressed.

Kapitany indicated that similar to what is being done in other markets, the integration of Shell Recharge at the existing mobility stations and the other non-fuels service offers at its facilities will broaden the suite of services that the company will be extending to its customers.

“One major advantage Shell has is: we have a very good network; and we have thousands of service stations in the Philippines – so that’s a very good network. Unlike other stand-alone EV competitors, we don’t have to go out necessarily to find a location because we already have very, very good locations, so that’s where we could start to offer customers our Shell Recharge, which is our brand for our EV charging infrastructure,” he conveyed.

The Shell executive said while the EV space remains a very nascent venture for Shell, great potential is already manifesting in China because that business segment so far yielded earnings in that market; while financial outcomes at European markets are already at ‘break even’ stride.

“We are able to get to profitability with this activity in China. And in European markets - like Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany where we have a number of EV cars with good utilization, we’re already breaking even, so it’s really promising. It’s a good performance for Shell,” he reckoned.

Kapitany highlighted that the rate of success they have been gaining in China is the same business goal that the global energy company has been targeting to replicate across diverse markets in Asia – although he specified that there are still hurdles when it comes to incentives and policy gaps in many countries.

For the Southeast Asian region, it is in Singapore where deployment of EV charging facilities has been advancing because it is the government that has been leading the way when it comes to auction and award of contracts for the installation of the EV chargers.