Shell Enters Southeast Asia's EV Charging Space Via Singapore

Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) plc. RDS.A has become the first fuel retailer to launch electric vehicle (‘EV’) charging facilities in Singapore. This move marks its entry in Southeast Asia.

The charging points will be set up at the European energy major’s petrol pumps across the city-state. While the company has already rolled out the first of such ‘Shell Recharge’ services at its Sengkang outlet, the rest is said to be made accessible at nine other Shell stations all over Singapore by October. This represents almost 20% of Shell’s Singaporean retail network.

Complying with the EV recharge capacity across Singapore, chargers are expected to boot up 0-80% power in such vehicles within half an hour. Further, the recharge is priced at $0.55 Singaporean dollars per kWh and customers are exempted from paying connection fees.

A Shell-commissioned study shows that Singaporeans avoid buying electric vehicles due to insufficient availability of charging points. Shell Recharge is an attempt to provide Singaporean clients with convenient mobility and cleaner energy solutions.

Shell’s EV Push

Shell’s introduction of EV chargers in Singapore — albeit a small market — is part of its plans to tap the growing popularity of pure energy resources and lower the company’s carbon footprint. Shell expects electricity demand to rise in the coming years with more people opting for electric vehicles and switching to cleaner energy resources.

Shell’s New Energies division, formed in 2016, is expected to spend around $1-$2 billion per annum until 2020 with a view to utilize the commercial opportunities in advanced fuel and power markets. In 2017, the company acquired the Dutch entity NewMotion (one of Europe's largest electric vehicle charging providers) while last year, it bought U.K.’s energy supplier First Utility.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Royal Dutch Shell carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked players in the energy space include Ameresco, Inc. (NYSE:AMRC) , Dril-Quip, Inc. (NYSE:DRQ) and World Fuel Services Corporation (NYSE:INT) , each holding a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Ameresco earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters.

Dril-Quip earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the previous four quarters.

World Fuel Services earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters.

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