Report: Shell Will Close Volta, Ending One of the Biggest EV Charging/DooH Ventures
August 7, 2025 by guest author, Balthasar Mayer
Hat tip to James Hercher from Adexchanger for this story.
In 2023, fossil fuel giant Shell bought the EV charging and media business Volta. Now, according to Adexchanger, Shell will close the whole Volta unit, including the DooH media business.
According to the report, the network of more than 2,000 charging stations will be dismantled this year.
Volta was one of the leading EV charging operators in the US. The company refinanced the free electricity supply for consumers with DooH advertising on the integrated screens, which were mostly installed in high-traffic parking lots in front of shopping malls and supermarkets.
However, Volta was not able to operate its business model profitably. It burned through so much money in its day-to-day operations that it was facing bankruptcy by the middle of 2023. The takeover by Shell at a very low company valuation was therefore kind of a fire sale.
The business model of combining DooH with EV charging stations seemed bear a lot of potential a few years ago. But it has had mixed success. Last year, the German start-up Numbat, which used DooH screens as additional income, filed for insolvency. The challenge of running an EV charging network with sustainable profit still remains.
Wow. Was at Kohl’s here in Denver last week and saw one. Here was their 2022 “ROI” — https://kioskindustry.org/ev-charging-station-volta-billion-impressions-peerless-av
Here is a deeper analysis of Florian Rotberg on our invidis partner site:
https://invidis.com/news/2025/08/op-ed-volta-and-the-unfulfilled-promise-of-dooh-driven-ev-charging/