{"id":40753,"date":"2023-01-19T09:04:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T14:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=40753"},"modified":"2023-01-19T09:04:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T14:04:14","slug":"1138476_shell-buys-volta-network-and-its-free-ev-charging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=40753","title":{"rendered":"Shell buys Volta network and its free EV charging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volta, a charging company distinguished by its partly free, partly ad-supported EV charging, announced Wednesday that it will be acquired by oil giant Shell.<\/p>\n

The two companies have signed a “definitive merger agreement” under which Shell will buy Volta in an all-cash transaction that values the charging company at $169 million, according to a Volta press release.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The transaction involves Shell acquiring all outstanding shares of Volta Class A common stock at $0.86 per share in cash, which represents an 18% premium over the January 17, 2023, closing price of Volta stock, the company said.<\/p>\n

\"Volta<\/p>\n

Volta charging<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the release, Shell said that it sees growth in what it describes as Volta’s “dual charging and media network,” which pretty much sums up the charging company’s appeal.<\/p>\n

Volta is a relative newcomer and started really pushing to build out its DC fast-charging network in 2019 and 2020. Although Volta didn’t appear to have any game-changing tech, its ad-supported model made it different\u2014essentially allowing EV drivers to charge up, free of any out-of-pocket cost.<\/p>\n

Volta’s free DC fast-charging went away last year, but its free Level 2 charging continues to be offered.<\/p>\n

In 2019 is suggested that its model of free, albeit ad-supported charging<\/a> might save EV drivers as much as $1,155 per year. Given recent energy inflation, that figure is undoubtedly higher now. In 2021, Volta added air quality<\/a> to the readouts at charging stations.<\/p>\n

\"Volta<\/p>\n

Volta charging<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Volta has pointed out with a study<\/a> that the urban\/suburban divide plays a significant role in charging\u2014as home-charging availability can vary so much within just a few miles based on types of houses or neighborhoods with owners vs. renters.<\/p>\n

Shell has been a big investor in charging over the past several years. Most noteworthy were its acquisitions of Greenlots<\/a>, to help get a handle on the technology behind the charging network, and Ubitricity,<\/a> for city-based Level 2 charging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volta, a charging company distinguished by its partly free, partly ad-supported EV charging, announced Wednesday that it will be acquired by oil giant Shell. The two companies have signed a “definitive merger agreement” under which Shell will buy Volta in an all-cash transaction that values the charging company at $169 million, according to a Volta […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-concepts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}