In the wake of the new European E-car rules, a similar concept from an unexpected name has surfaced. Shell has unveiled a small urban EV called the Triple10 Challenge, which shows some interesting features for a car of its size. This is more than oil supermajor window dressing for green credentials.
Shell still pumps roughly three million barrels of crude per day, and, of course, the company is hedging its bets as electromobility gradually replaces combustion engines and oil-derived products. Welcome to the Triple10 Challenge, a road-going EV concept that actually works.
The name is branding shorthand for three numbers that matter: ten minutes to charge from 10 to 80 percent on a standard 175 kW public charger – which is exceptional. Ten kilometers traveled for every kilowatt-hour consumed. And a ten-tonne lifetime CO2 footprint, cradle to grave.
None of these figures is theoretical. Shell, together with British engineering firm RML, has built a working demonstrator and tested it at Horiba Mira’s proving ground. We’ll have to take Shell’s word for it, but it seems the car lives up to the numbers. These seem plausible given the four-door’s small size.
Clever cooling
But there are clever bits beyond the packaging, motor, or chassis. The cooling is what we should focus on. Shell has ditched the conventional water-glycol loops that are entangled around battery modules in today’s EVs. Instead, it has submerged the cylindrical cells directly in a dielectric fluid of its own formulation.
This sounds like a minor tweak, but it is a big deal. By bathing the cells in a non-conductive liquid, the pack maintains its optimal temperature continuously, even while sucking down 175 kW for the full duration of a rapid charge.
Thermal ceiling
Today’s best-performing fast-charging EVs can reach 320 kW and higher, but they maintain these thermal limits for only a few minutes. When it gets too heated, the software clips the current, and your charge curve collapses. This pack does not. Essentially, the thermal ceiling has been removed by the liquid bath.
This concept aims squarely at urban buyers who lack home charging—people who need to top up on the go and refuse to wait half an hour. Shell’s own surveys suggest that 10 minutes is the psychological barrier to public charging tolerance.
Inside, the car is spacious too. The small battery fits under the back seat and the trunk, so there are comfortable footwells, and passengers don’t have to pull their knees up. The interior itself is minimalistic and clean.
Better cooling also means better regenerative braking recovery and the ability to share a single radiator circuit with the motor and power electronics. The fluid also results in less weight, less cost, and less complexity.
Friendly to recycle
Shell presents the math alongside: the resulting 32 kWh usable battery costs about 25 percent less to manufacture than a conventional pack of equivalent output. It is also easier to take apart. Drop the fluid, pull the modules. By abandoning the glued-together layers, recycling becomes a piece of cake.
Talking about circularity, the chassis is cast from recycled aluminum, which Shell says emits 10 times less CO2 than virgin metal. The roof and wheels are made from recycled carbon fiber, while the upholstery is made from flax.
Add it all up, and that’s how Shell reaches a lifecycle carbon footprint of roughly 10 tonnes CO2 equivalent, charged on 100% renewable electricity. That is around half the lifetime emissions of a typical European battery electric vehicle today, according to the company’s figures.
Selling the fluid
But the question remains: why does an oil and gas company, with contested net-zero ambitions, build a small EV? Well, it’s because it wants to sell you the fluid it contains. And the electricity that charges it.
The Triple10 arrives at an interesting moment: affordable EVs are the next big thing, and the concept is politically backed by a dedicated safety and manufacturing ruling from the EU, which is set to create a windfall for these cars, better known as E-cars.
Shell is proposing a promising take: a small battery, a light car, a simpler cooling loop at a lower price. This might spark genuine inspiration from automotive OEMs.
