Oil Companies Stepping Up E-Mobility Involvement

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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7th November 2019

Oil giants are responding to the electric ‘sign on the wall’ by increasingly dipping their toes into the e-mobility market.

The latest is Dutch company Shell which has teamed up with mobility specialist ViaVan to launch an e-mobility project in Amsterdam. The project hopes to integrate the latter’s on-demand technology and operations and the former’s charging station infrastructure into one system in a bid to show that high-capacity electric fleets could improve commercial performance when routing to available chargers intelligently.

ViaVan’s “EV Operating System” claims to employ an EV routing algorithm to enhance vehicle range and battery management. In Amsterdam, the system hopes to monitor real-time battery status of all vehicles in the fleet, calculate upcoming charging tasks and route vehicles to Shell charging stations. Passengers can book an electric shared ride through an “eVia” request on a mobile app.

The Dutch city was chosen as the first market for the project thanks to its commitment to transport sustainability having stated clear goals to achieve zero-emission transport by 2025. Roger Hunter, vice-president electric mobility at Shell, said: “We put customers at the heart of all our solutions and are looking forward to this opportunity to prove the viability of a new solution for electric fleets in urban areas.”

Chris Snyder, ViaVan CEO, added: “We are excited to partner with Shell to demonstrate that when technology interacts with infrastructure, we have the ability to bring innovative, congestion-reducing and sustainable solutions to cities that have the potential to evolve public transportation towards a greener, shared future.”

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_