Volta is set to be acquired by Shell USA, Inc. to accelerate decarbonization of the transportation sector. Chris (MaxxMPG) Bernius – CleanMPG – Jan. 18, 2023 A Volta L2 Charging station at a Kroger near Atlanta, GA. Volta is now set to be Acquired by Shell USA, Inc. to Accelerate Decarbonization of the Transportation Sector New York, NY -- Late last month, Volta (NYSE: VLTA) announced the execution of a definitive merger agreement under which Shell USA Inc., a subsidiary of Shell plc (NYSE: SHEL), will acquire Volta in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $169 million. The transaction brings Volta's powerful dual charging and media network to Shell's established brand and seeks to unlock robust, long-term growth opportunities in electric vehicle ("EV") charging. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Shell USA Inc. will acquire all outstanding shares of Class A common stock of Volta at $0.86 per share in cash upon completion of the merger, which represents an approximate 18 percent premium to the closing price of Volta stock on January 17, 2023, the last full trading day prior to the announcement of the transaction. This acquisition builds on the momentum in electric mobility by combining one of the leading EV charging and media companies in the U.S. with one of the world's largest energy suppliers. The transaction provides the opportunity to unlock Volta's significant signed pipeline of charging stalls in construction or evaluation and capture the seismic EV charging market opportunity. Following the completion of the transaction, there will be no immediate change in driver experience, Volta Media Network capabilities available to advertisers, or services provided to commercial properties and retail locations. As part of the agreement, an affiliate of Shell will provide subordinated secured term loans to Volta to bridge Volta through the closing of the transaction. Approvals Volta's Board of Directors, having determined that the transaction is in the best interests of the company's stockholders, has unanimously approved the transaction and recommends that Volta's stockholders approve the transaction and adopt the merger agreement at the special meeting of stockholders to be called in connection with the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023. The closing of the merger is subject to the approval of Volta's stockholders, the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and other applicable regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions. Upon closing of the transaction, Volta's Class A common stock will no longer be listed on any public market. Following up, I spotted in the local newspaper this morning: "Shell USA is expanding from gas pumps to charging points. The oil giant bought Volta Inc., owner of a network of about 3,000 electric vehicle charging points, including 28 on Long Island. Volta also has another 3,400 EV charging stations under development. The price of the acquisition was $169 million. Volta’s charging stations are placed at what Shell calls “destination points” such as shopping centers, malls, grocery stores and pharmacies." The paper goes on to note, "On Long Island, for example, there are six Volta EV chargers at Broadway Commons mall in Hicksville and two at Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, according to Volta’s website. Most others are near Stop & Shop supermarkets in Nassau." There was news of this a few weeks ago, so I'm guessing that the sudden announcement means it's either done or close enough to done that it's worth talking about. It will be a welcome addition to the landscape. There are lots of EVs in the suburbs of NYC - including a matte gray Ioniq 5 I see as I drive home from church. It's parked in a driveway and plugged in. Having these chargers installed will mean that more drivers with limited charging options can consider an EV. Time will tell if the chargers are the flaky Eternally “Out Of Order” version or the dangerous Doesn't Work Below 30 Degrees version, with both seeming to infest a lot of parking lots. If they are the Just Works and Doesn't Set the Car On Fire version, local EV owners are going to be thrilled.
I think they are Volta's at the local Giant. Likely Level 2. Their site mentions DC, but it is slow. They are also a 'free' charger, IIRC.
A quick G map check shows 3 Volta chargers in my general viscinity, scattered 10-20 miles away. Not a huge presence here. I have opportunity charged at the nearest one when I was at that Stop and Shop. G maps lists them as J1772 8.3 kW 2/2.
8.3kW is not bad for a charge-n-shop option. At the mall near my workplace, they have a sign stating two hour charge limit. Even two hours at that rate is enough to replenish what most people use in an entire day or maybe two days. The nearest Stop & Shop lists two chargers - 8.3 and 7.7. The mall about a mile northeast of the market has 8.3kW chargers in pairs on either end of the mall. Just for fun, I searched out CHAdeMO chargers. There are more than I thought there would be. And, of course, I don't see any in use as of Friday morning at 11am EST. Other than the new Outlander PHEV and a few tapped out Leaf hatchbacks, there aren't many cars that can use one.
Early on, in the Pacific Northwest, Volta FREE chargers got a great start on the west side of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. They had a goodly # of concentrated chargers at the southeast & northeast ends of the Salish Sea(Puget Sound) with less concentrated chargers in the middle. Thinking I might eventually get an EV, I visited a few Volta chargers near interesting areas that I loved to visit for hours at a time. I knew Volta was having a hard time getting quality advertising for their built-in electronic reader boards & figured that they were having lots of trouble economically. I’m hoping Shell can deliver better quality & quantity advertising & be able to continue Volta’s original business plan of FREE charging. Shell does get about 3000 chargers at very optimal sites to give them an excellent core FREE charging beginning. If Shell needs to make more money tho, I suspect Shell will end the FREE charging. However, grocery stores like Safeway, which has many Volta FREE chargers in their parking lots, won’t like the curmudgeon Shell “charge for a charge”, which will reflect on Safeway, all the way from their parking lot into their grocery stores.
At one point Volta put 2 FREE chargers within 2 miles of my community. What made it so neat, was the FREE chargers were near a walk in the woods, with a nice creek on one side AND a river on the other side. Yes, this is rainy Western Washington! I’ve walked the area many times with my binoculars. If I could afford an EV, I not only would have my familiar walk, but could also get enough FREE charging to EV travel the equivalent of 2 gallons of gasoline. Two gallons of gas here is $7. Powerful savings! Oh, if I had a really inefficient ICE vehicle, the FREE charger would give me the equivalent of 4 gallons of gasoline! That would be $14! Anyhow, our community is a stickler for P’s & Q’s AND those Volta FREE chargers were removed! A year has passed, & now I see the Volta FREE chargers are back! So, I’m happy again. Now, I just got be be able to afford a good EV. IF the local Chevy dealer can get me a good deal on a Chevy Bolt(in the past, that dealer doesn’t give good deals), I can use their multiple chargers. One is 6(?) kW. They MAY have a fast charger, which I would NOT use. They also have a solar charger(what?-3kW). If I could charge on it for 4 hours, I can walk home. Then return 4 hours later AND have an extra 12kW-hrs or $5.25 worth of gasoline. Other FREE chargers are fairly near. Other FREE Volta chargers are in other regions, places I like to visit & spend time.
Another defection - Nissan with the Ariya. I wonder what Mitsubishi will do with the Outlander PHEV (was CHAdeMO iirc)? I have not paid attention to that offering.
I don't follow your math, but it is okay. Free is free without trying to equate it to amounts of gasoline.
If FREE only saves a few pennies, FREE doesn’t mean too much. But, I put in a rough guess how much gasoline would be needed by an ICE vehicle to travel the same distance an efficient EV would get using 12kW-hrs of electricity. I guessed about $5.25 in gasoline cost. Calculating more accurately, I get $4.85. That will be using the solar charger, which I think might NOT be used too often by other EV drivers, who would go for the higher kW output chargers. Yes, the dealer solar charger is low output, but I’d walk home, not caring about the time to charge the EV. Even if I forgot to pick up the EV after 4 hours, all it would mean is that the EV would get an extra 6kW of energy, if I eventually picked up the EV, say after 6 hours.
I get what you're saying, litesong, but the assumptions are so unique to you and your particular locale and vehicle. How does that help other people reading this from all parts of the world with differing MPG or liters/100km and differing costs of electricity? Free = free. simple. 12 kWh is worth $4+ to me, not in gasoline but in electricity. It is probably worth much less in your area. Let's say I use our Prius Prime as the basis and local $3/gallon gasoline. That would mean the 12 kWh of "free" charging would be worth $3 to me in gasoline, but $4 in electricity. Either way, the car will go 60 miles. Or I could use that 12 kWh to run the house. Get the difference? (Yes, I can make that 12 kWh to go toward running my house.) I'd rather stick with energy equivalence and leave the costs and differing efficiencies out of it. 12 kWh = 0.36 gallons of gasoline just thinking about energy. Question: Does the solar charger you mention have any battery attached? Is it attached to the grid? Is it off-grid? What I'm getting at is that if off-grid with no battery, plugging in all day on a cloudy day won't get much charge into your EV. If grid connected, then you're basically drawing free electricity from the utility company (on a cloudy day) and they're paying for it and it isn't solar sourced necessarily. If battery attached, whether on or off-grid, there's a better chance that you're charging off solar power. None of this matters, right? It's just free charging. Try not to think about going EV too long. Just dive in when you're able. The longer you wait, the more gasoline you will have burned.
Yes, all my calcs pertain to me, altho many others ARE thinking like me. Bill, you need to give up trying to win some argument you started, by force-fitting obviously incorrect data. 12kw-hrs gained at the dealer solar charger in an efficient EV will take me 54 miles. Equivalent gasoline cost in my non-hybrid ICE to drive 54 miles is $4.85. Obviously, you are fudging, if you think your car, even if it is a hybrid (which mine isn’t), will go 54 miles on 0.36 gallon of gas. Some here have also complained that I want FREE charging(which I do), altho I’ve never had FREE charging yet. However, Gord has experienced plenty of FREE charging & no one says “Boo” to him. I will choose to use the dealer’s solar charging often, because the dealer won’t have any electrical cost & the other higher output EV chargers will be available to other customers.
More of my calculations that only pertain to me: Wanted an EV since 2006(earlier?) to do what I wanted to do. This is 2023. Still haven’t got an EV. Still may be a year or longer from getting one. AND I am getting older. If I don’t get one, I’ll be getting older, quicker.
Got a new IPhone yesterday & went to an Apple Store having classes, for some help. Yeah, I’m going to need a lot of classes. I even learned something from the beginner photography lessons. & they have more advanced lesson classes, too. A good thing I found was there were VOLTA chargers within 200 yards of the Apple store! Looks like I’ll have to delay getting an EV at least till next year. If I put off those IPhone lessons till I get an EV, I’ll be able to save the equivalent of $6+ of gasoline costs on each lesson. Oh, I love THAT possibility! Plus, if I combine other activities in the area, I can charge on other chargers (some are Volta) & could save the equivalent of $15(?) of gasoline money. Oh, oh…..OH BOY! That would start putting me into the same category as rich folk, who have been saving like crazy on their EV purchases & chargings. AND I’ll be one up on rich folk savings, too. Since I get used tires really cheap (some free), traveling around will save me more money. Wow…..just open my wallet AND POUR THE MONEY IN. There we go. ////// PS….Just got back from the river with the automatic Elantra, Penncrest zoom binoculars & the new IPhone. The new IPhone has up to a 3 power lens only, but it’s better than the 1 power lens only available on the next lower camera model. While taking pictures of a duck taking off from the water on the other side of the river (200 yards?), I used the 3x lens & digitally zoomed in to 7power. Now digital zooming may initially look OK on an IPhone, but it doesn’t add more pixels to your zoomed in picture, & actually deceases the pixel count dramatically. Still & all, as the duck paddled fast to take-off speed, the final still picture showed some water droplets. Remind me tho, not to leave my binoculars behind, when I only have the IPhone.
https://www.law.com/therecorder/202...9m-shell-acquisition/?slreturn=20230226235047 Stockholders in Volta have filed a lawsuit, claiming the Proxy to acquire Volta by Shell has inaccurate information. Well, the lawyers are gathering. Of course, any help for the poor, who can use some FREE charging……now lessens.
Approaching 1 year now, that Shell took over the FREE Volta chargers. Now, with my decreased health & economics, AND GM changing & decreasing EV value to me, getting an EV has been put off even further. As far as I can tell, the Shell-owned Volta chargers are still FREE. Without an EV tho, they are not FREE to me. Hi Gord. Haven't read anything from you about your used Tesla Model 3 lately. Does sound like your solar panels are providing the power that you were getting from some of the free EV chargers around your area. Since you're selling power back to the supplier, is your Tesla getting lots of energy from the panels too?
