Nope; the writing has been on the wall for fossil fuels for decades, because they KNOW it's a finite resource. The way things are going nowadays though, it's more likely fossil fuels will simply stop being mainstream; for ALL parties involved, it's the more economic option.

I mean granted, there's pretty big profit margins on fuel, but with electric they can get rid of the underground tanks, the trucks, the safety checks, the fire hazard, etc.

So whereas the oil producing countries have invested their incredible amounts of oil money into real estate, companies like Shell are investing in charging points. Because they're good, long-term investments, they don't need much attention, they can be placed anywhere, and every charge session is a bit of profit for whoever owns them.

I mean I'm confident Tesla's long-term strategy isn't so much producing cars - since the established car companies are going to overtake them in that regard, if they haven't already - but infrastructure, supplies, IP and raw materials (charging stations, batteries, technology and lithium / cobalt / intermediate goods, and big projects for power companies like grid-level batteries).

They already bought another electric vehicle charging company an EMSP which connects the users with the companies that have the charging stations. That seems to be going ok and the thing with the UK is the largest one owns like 90% of the stations so they basically have a stranglehold on the UK market. Also, I know one of their main (maybe largest) competitiors are running themselves into the ground.

Source: I work for the competitor

> [in the UK] the largest one owns like 90% of the stations

This article says that Ubitricity has the largest network of electric charging points. I can't reconcile that with your statement about 90%. Which provider were you referring to there?

I can't remember the name, I've just sat in a bunch of business meetings where they kept saying the problem with the UK was we couldn't get access to the market because one company, whose name got mentioned a few times but not enough to remember, had 90% and wouldn't work with us or anyone because they make more money without partnerships. It could be the 90% are connected to a hub and the hub won't work with us. We have direct connections with CPOs (Charing Point Operators) and then we have connections with hubs, most of our CPOs come via a hub like Hubject.

Shell has stated their plans to become the world's biggest supplier of electricity; running this as agoing concern seems in line with their new strategy.

Lets see if their actions follow their words.

Why would they do that? BEVs are the future, you can make more money by selling them electricity than by clinging to gas for a few more years.

I dunno, clinging to gas seems to have been pretty lucrative for the last years/decades,.even if the switch is inevitable (if only bc gas is a finite resource). If the big oil companies had been really motivated to push alternative vehicles I'm sure we'd be a lot closer to 100% off petroleum by now.

Given how fungible electricity is, any attempt to stifle it would just open the way for a competitor.

This looks like a hedge against the inevitable day when people stop buying gasoline.

Yep. The UK government's current plan is to ban sales of new petrol and diesel powered cars from 2030. Running and expanding charging networks keeps Shell relevant over the coming decades, acquiring them in the hope of stalling them would just be setting fire to money.