The electric vehicle (EV) market is booming and widespread adoption of EVs is critical if countries are to realise their climate ambitions. But every new EV on the road increases the demand for convenient, affordable charging. The Energy Podcast investigates how the world is meeting this infrastructure challenge. Presented by Julia Streets. Featuring Elizabeth Connelly of the International Energy Agency, Lucie Mattera from ChargeUP Europe, Ingrid Malmgren of Plug In America and Shell’s Istvan Kapitany.

The Energy Podcast is a Fresh Air Production for Shell, produced by Annie Day and Sarah Moore, and edited by Molly Lynch and Sophie Curtis.

TRANSCRIPT

Shell The Energy Podcast
Season 4, Episode 3

00:00
Julia Streets: Today on The Energy Podcast…..

MUSIC BED COMES IN

Istvan Kapitany: When  this  is  becoming  really  the  global  way  of  mobility,  finally,  we  really  need  to  be  sorting  out  public  charging.
Ingrid Malmgren: Through  deliberate  planning  and  innovation  and  organic  growth, we're  going  to  have  chargers  where  we  need  them,  when  we  need  them,  and  we'll  have  a  cleaner,  more  sustainable  equitable  transportation  system.

00:29
Julia Streets: There  can  be  little  denial  that  the  electric  vehicle  revolution  is  upon  us.  According  to  the  International  Energy  Agency,  sales  of  Electric  Vehicles,  or  EVs,  exceeded  10  million  worldwide  in  2022,  and  the  global  market  is  predicted  to  grow  even  further  this  year.  This  is  good  news  for  the  nations  relying  on  widespread  adoption  of  EVs  in  helping  them  to  realize  their  climate  ambitions.  If  global  carbon  emissions  are  to  reach  net  zero  by  2050  in  line  with  the  Paris  Agreement,  there  will  need  to  be  300  million  EVs  on  the  road  by  the  end  of  this  decade.
Such  rapid  growth  intensifies  the  need  for  EV  infrastructure,  namely  access  to  reliable,  affordable  charging.  Ensuring  that  EVs  match  the  cost  and  convenience  of  running  a  conventional  fuel  vehicle  is  crucial,  not  just  for  existing  owners,  but  also  in  convincing  more  drivers  to  make  the  switch.  Governments  and  businesses  across  the  world  are  grappling  with  the  infrastructure  challenge  created  by  the  EV  boom  with  varying  degrees  of  success.
Hello,  I'm  Julia  Streets,  and  today  on  The  Energy  Podcast  we  ask,  are  roads  ready  for  EVs? 

MUSIC ENDS

With  me  to  discuss  this  are  Elizabeth  Connelly,  transport  analyst  at  the  International  Energy  Agency.  Lucie  Mattera,  Secretary  General  of  the  infrastructure  industry  association,  ChargeUp  Europe.  Ingrid  Malmgren,  policy  director  at  Plug  In  America,  and  Shell's  Executive  Vice  President  for  Mobility,  Istvan  Kapitany.
 I'm  delighted  that  you're  all  with  me  today.  Elizabeth,  when  you  think  about  EV  infrastructure,  what's  the  global  outlook?

02:16
Elizabeth Connelly: One  thing  to  note  about  charging  infrastructure  right  now  is  that  most  charging  of  electric  cars  occurs  at  homes,  but  a  lot  of  the  attention  is  around  public  charging,  of  course,  because  this  helps  enable  people  to own EVs  that  don't  have  access  to  home  charging.  Looking  at  the  picture  today,  worldwide  there  are  about  we  estimate  17  million  home  chargers  for  electric  vehicles  and  that's  compared  to  about  three  million  public  EV  chargers.
 In  terms  of  who's  leading  the  way  with  charging  infrastructure,  I  don't  want  to  say  any  one  country  is  doing  better  or  worse,  because  I  think  it  really  depends  a  lot  on  the  setup  of  homes  and  whether  people  are  living  in  detached  homes  or  in  multi- unit  dwellings.  So  for  example,  in  the  US  I  think  around  80%  of  EV  owners  live  in  single  family  homes  and  so  it's  really  easy  to  charge  at  home  and  there's  less  pressure  for  there  to  be  public  charging  infrastructure,  at  least  in  these  early  stages. While  on  the  other  hand,  in  China  only  about  50%  of  charging  occurs  at  home.
 So  I  think  there  are  factors  that  make  it  very  different  across  different  regions  around  what is  the  right  level  of  public  charging  infrastructure.  For  example,  China  accounted  for  50%  of  electric  light  duty  vehicles  last  year  but  65%  of  the  public  charging  infrastructure.  So  I  think  in  that  way  China's  leading,  but  I  think  there's  also  factors  that  make  it  you  need  to  be  leading  in  terms  of  public  charging.

03:45
Julia Streets: I've  heard  some  people  talk  about  having  quite  deep- seated  concerns  about  what  they  might  call  range  anxiety,  in  terms  of will  you  be  able  to  get  the  mileage,  the  kilometrage  that  you  are  looking  for.

03:57
Elizabeth Connelly: Sure.  So  at  least  in  terms  of  cars,  and  I  think  trucks  as  well,  range  anxiety  is  a  real  concern.  We  see  automakers  in  the  car  industry,  and  I  think  also  in  the  truck  industry,  really  looking  at  how  they  can  increase  EV  range,  especially  in  ways  that  maybe  don't  require  larger  and  larger,  heavier  and  heavier  batteries.  So  thinking  about  these  in-route  charging,  whether  it  be  highway  fast  chargers  like  we've  already  seen  across  highways  around  the  world  or  thinking  about  for  trucks  in  particular  rest  stops,  how  long  the  rest  time  is  and  building  in  infrastructure  that  can  facilitate  charging  in  whatever  amount  of  time.  I  think  the  US  and  the  EU  have  different  regulations  on  how  long  driver  breaks  should  be  for  these  long  haul  trucking  segments.  So  really  thinking  about  how  the  operations  need  to  work  in  order  to  design  the  adequate  infrastructure  in  a  way  that  could  help  reduce  as  much  as  possible  the  power  demand  on  the  grid.

04:55
Julia Streets: Lucie,  from  your  point  of  view,  at ChargeUp Europe,  what are your  thoughts?

04:59
Lucie Mattera: So  on  range  anxiety,  what  we  are  finding  that  this  is  a  factor  that  is  less  prevalent  today  in  terms  of  sort  of  slowing  down  the  switch  to  EV  charging.  There  was  a  recent  consumer  survey  that  was  commissioned  by  the  European  Commission  and  what  they  found  was  the  primary  obstacle  for  the  switch  to  EV  was  actually  the  price  of  the  car  rather  than the  range  anxiety  or  the  lack  of infrastructure. So in terms of  what  came  up  first  as  an  obstacle  for  a  driver  that's  considering  the  switch  to e-mobility,  that  was  firmly  on  the  top  of  the  list.

05:32
Julia Streets: Ingrid,  what  do  you  think?

05:34
Ingrid Malmgren: I think  that  with  regard  to  passenger  vehicles,  since  so  many  people  charge  at  home  in  the  United  States,  for  most  people's  day- to- day  driving,  range  anxiety  is  not  a  huge  issue.  Most  people  drive  around  30  miles  a  day  and  new  EVs  have  ranges  well  over  250  miles  a  day.  So  many  people  only  need  to  charge  up  every  several  days  or  once  a  week.

06:00
Julia Streets: Istvan,  can  I  bring  you  in  here?  How  important  in  the  big  debate  about  whether  a  motorist  will  make  the  switch  to  EV  is  the  question  of  infrastructure?

06:10
Istvan Kapitany: It's  very,  very  important  and  we are  already  charging  in  30  countries  in  the  world.  So  we  are  pretty  much  one  of  the  biggest  operator  in  terms  of  the  reach.  The  United  States  is  very  different  than  China.  So  in  China  we  have  already  well  over  20,000  public  chargers.  Most  of  the  people,  of  course,  are not  having  the  ability  to  charge  at  home,  so we really  need  to  be  catering  for  that  immediately.
 In  the  United  States,  in  different  parts  of  the  United  States,  you  have  the  picture  very  different.  And in  Europe,  we  just  did  a  survey  now,  whilst  a  year  ago  it  was  basically  33%  of  the  people  who  didn't  have  charger  at  home,  this  is  now  44%  of  the  people  who  are  driving  EV  cars  do  not  have  charger  at  home.
 Why  is  it  happening?  Of  course,  after  the  early  adapters  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  mainstream  activity,  which  is  great.  We  see  that  people  are  buying  this  for  commuting  and  therefore  public  charging  is  becoming  a  very  important  part  of  this  equation.  At  the  early  stage,  many  people  thought,  oh,  it's  going  to  be  all  home  charging.  It  is  just  not  possible.  We  are  in  84  markets  and  90%  of  the  people  who  fill  up  at  Shell  wouldn't  be  today  with  electricity  or  with  fuel  but  wouldn't  have  an  ability  to  charge  at  home.  So  when  this  is  becoming  really  the  global  way  of  mobility,  finally,  we  really  need  to  be  sorting  out  public  charging.

07:30
Julia Streets: There's  a  huge  element  here  about  the  growing  availability  of  charging  needed  in  convenient  locations,  whether they're  from forecourts  and  streets  to  workplaces,  retail  car  parks.  I  just  want  to  pick  up  on  this  because  we're  going  to  take  a  quick  trip  to  Germany  where  Carlo  Cumpelik,  Shell's  network  delivery  manager  for  Germany,  Austria,  and  Switzerland,  has  been  at  an  EV  charging  site  in  Berlin.

7:53
Carlo Cumpelik: I  stand  here  in  Berlin  at  Konrad -Wolf -Street at  the  parking  lot  next  to  the  REWE  Su