Shell plans to install ten rapid-charging points for electric vehicles on its British petrol station forecourts this year: SHELL

Royal Dutch Shell is stepping up its drive into the electric vehicle market by developing smart charging technology to prevent battery-powered cars causing blackouts.

The oil major said it had tested the service, which intelligently controls when cars draw electricity from the grid, in London, Hamburg and San Diego, and was drawing up plans for its commercial deployment.

An increasing number of companies are looking at the issue because of concerns that power grids cannot cope with the demand from even modest numbers of electric vehicles charging at the same time.

John Abbott, director of Shell’s downstream — refining and marketing — operations, said grid infrastructure presented “one of the biggest barriers to electrical vehicles”, citing a report by the Green Alliance think tank, which warned that…