Shell EV Thermal Fluid Development Paves Way for Sub-10-Minute Charging with enhanced safety

Shell Lubricants (“Shell”), has successfully formulated and demonstrated a high-performance EV thermal management fluid with the ability to unlock significant reductions in charging times without compromise to battery safety, thermal stability or lifespan, aiding the widespread adoption of battery electric vehicles [BEVs].

In collaboration with RML Group – one of the leading UK automotive innovation companies - a 34 kWHr battery pack using Shell EV-Plus Thermal Fluid featuring proprietary Shell Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) Technology, has been developed which is capable of charging from 10% to 80% capacity in under 10 minutes. The thermal fluid reduces thermal stresses very significantly allowing much higher cell charging currents to be tolerated.

If utilised in a carefully designed lightweight and aerodynamic car operating with an economy of 10 km/kWHr, a charging rate of 24km per minute spent charging would be achieved - significantly higher than the typical 5km per minute currently attained by many existing BEV designs by optimising performance whilst significantly reducing the number and mass of components.

Shell EV-Plus Thermal Fluids are electrically non-conductive fluids, which facilitate excellent heat transfer by filling all of the interstitial spaces within the battery pack, maximising direct contact between the fluid and each battery cell. They accommodate the very high levels of heat generation associated with rapid charging, ensuring extraordinary consistency and control of temperatures across the pack whilst offering enhanced protection against adverse thermal events. The advanced thermal management technology on display in this collaborative project was developed to showcase compact battery pack designs that are elegant, cost-effective and less complex.

“As we celebrate World EV Day, we are thrilled to demonstrate that Shell EV-Plus Thermal Fluids can help to significantly improve battery thermal performance, paving the way towards higher charging efficiencies, enhanced safety, convenience and cost-effectiveness— to support the widespread adoption of BEVs demanded by legislative initiatives around the world,” said Jason Wong, Global Executive Vice President, Shell Lubricants.

“This evolution is a testament to our commitment to collaborative innovation towards enabling more value with less emissions - building on our experience in high-performance transformer oils, proprietary Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) technology, and single-phase immersion cooling fluids for data centres.”

The market for BEVs has grown significantly, with BEV sales increasing 14% in 2024 compared to 2023¹. From the Shell Recharge Survey, EVs in both Europe and USA are driven further than ICE vehicles with over 52% of EVs in Europe and USA driven over 15,000km a year vs 22% of non-EVs in Europe and 42% in USA. Yet, among those not driving an EV, over 44% in Europe, USA and China cite concerns about range anxiety or lack of public charging points².

Robert Mainwaring, Shell’s lead engineer on the project, commented: “Consumers are in pursuit of better energy efficiency, longer driving range and faster charging. Our ambition within this project was to show how Shell EV-Plus Thermal Fluids can support significant reductions in charging time without compromising cell integrity and lifetime.

By embracing advanced thermal management solutions, we believe this will open the door to a new generation of more sustainable, efficient and cost-effective battery electric vehicle solutions.”

For more information, please visit www.shell.com/ev-plus

Shell EV-Plus thermal fluids will also be featured at The Battery Show North America in Detroit, USA from October 6-9, 2025.

Notes to editors

About the 2025 Shell Recharge Driver Survey:

Interviews for the 2025 Shell Recharge Driver Survey were conducted in March 2025 using an email invitation and an online survey with our third-party research partner Strive.

15,000 respondents across 9 markets including the core markets of USA, China and Europe (comprised of the UK, Germany, and Netherlands) and four additional markets (Singapore, Australia, Greece and Denmark that were not contained in the global findings).

In the core markets we sampled a total of 8803 BEV or PHEV drivers across Europe, including in Germany (3,855 respondents), the Netherlands (1,997), the UK (2,351), the USA (1,000 ), and China (1,000).

A total of 2,800 non-EV drivers were surveyed this year. The national breakdown is as follows: Germany (571), the Netherlands (512), UK (547 respondents), USA (500), China (500).

External references

¹ Electric Vehicle Sales Review Q4 2024, PwC (PDF)

² EV Markets reports

Immersive thermal management

Immersive cooling technologies using dielectric liquids have a long tradition in industrial applications and have been applied successfully in several areas, such as oil immersed transformer designs. Good dielectric properties are essential to prevent electric shorts as the fluid is directly in contact with high voltage electrical systems. Therefore, high specific electrical resistivity and high break down voltage are key to ensure reliable function of the electric system.

Shell has more than a century of experience in dielectric fluid development and production. Building on its extensive experience in dielectric fluids and GTL technology, Shell has more recently developed a range of Shell Immersion Cooling Fluids for use in single-phase immersion cooling systems for data centers, as well as the Shell EV-Plus Thermal Management (TM) range of products to meet and exceed latest requirements from automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers, including battery pack and cell manufacturers. Shell recently acquired Panolin and MIDEL/MIVOLT to expand its portfolio, which now contains not only thermal fluids formulated with GTL technology that are biodegradable to varying degrees, but also natural and synthetic ester base oils. Together this establishes a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to meet diverse thermal management needs across a range of applications, including power transmission and distribution, data center cooling, and thermal management of EV batteries, electric motors, inverters and fast chargers.

Earlier this year Shell Immersion Cooling Fluids were the first to gain recognition as Intel Data Center Certified for Immersion Cooling – affirming their compatibility with 4^th and 5^th Gen Intel Xeon processors. Data centres can also benefit from Intel’s Immersion Warranty Rider, which covers the use of Shell’s immersion cooling fluids. Together with RML Group, Shell’s innovative EV thermal fluids demonstrate tangible benefits for battery electric vehicles and power trains.