Our Triple 10 Challenge Concept Car Unveiled
In June 2026, we unveiled Shell's ground-breaking Triple 10 Challenge concept car, a proof-of-concept vehicle using Shell's latest thermal fluid technology to improve efficiency, performance and costs for the next-generation of battery electric vehicles (EVs).
Rising to the Triple 10 Challenge
Our Triple 10 Challenge revolved around three ambitious goals in one vehicle to help drive the future of mass-market electric mobility:
10-minute charge time
10km/kWh driving efficiency
10 tonnes CO2e lifecycle emissions
Watch the film to find out more.
Read the transcript
Read the transcript
Title: Triple 10 Challenge: Shell NZBD Launch Film
Duration: 1:12 minutes
Description:
A chronological transcript of the Triple 10 Challenge concept car launch film, tracking visual, textual, and audio elements exactly as they appear over the course of the video.
Triple 10 Challenge: Shell NZBD Launch Film Transcript
[Background music plays]
Electronic synth music with a driving, forward-moving rhythm and a futuristic tone begins and plays throughout the video.
Introduction and Vision
[Animated sequence]
A digital circuit board glows with flowing blue light pathways, leading into a fast-paced zoom through stylized light streaks that simulate high-speed travel.
[Text displays]
● TRIPLE 10 CHALLENGE
● Charge faster | Go further | Drive cleaner
[Visuals]
An aerial night view of a sprawling city highway interchange with illuminated blue traffic lanes.
[Text displays]
● Once a vision, now a reality.
The Three Targets
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
At Shell, we challenged ourselves to rethink the future of electric vehicles.
[Visuals]
A designer works, sketching and inspecting a white physical car prototype. An engineer points to a colourful CAD schematic on a computer screen, followed by two men in a workshop reviewing notes on a wall.
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
Beyond simply building bigger batteries and faster chargers to improve performance.
[Visuals]
Automated robotic arms assemble a vehicle chassis in a clean factory setting. A charging cable plugs into an electric car port, showing a digital charging ring progress. Aerial footage tracks a white car driving through a dense green forest road.
[Visuals]
The screen splits into three distinct blocks displaying targets simultaneously: a car charging, a car driving down a rural road, and a time-lapse of clouds in the sky.
[Text displays]
● Sub 10-Minute Charge
● 10km/kWh Efficiency
● 10-Tonne CO2 Footprint
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
Three ambitious targets achieved together in one car.
Target 1: Faster Charging
[Visuals]
A close-up shot of a person plugging a charging handle into the white electric car.
[Text displays]
● Result: 9 min 54 sec charge time
[Animated sequence]
A 3D digital model demonstrates an immersively cooled battery pack with liquid blue channels flowing around individual battery cells.
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
Faster charging through a smaller, immersively cooled battery.
Target 2: Improved Efficiency
[Visuals]
A first-person view driving down a tree-lined road, transitioning into a sweeping aerial view of a valley.
[Text displays]
● Result: 10km/kWh
[Visuals]
Two technicians in a workshop look at a computer screen while adjusting the lightweight structural frame of the vehicle chassis.
[Animated sequence]
A transparent 3D rendering showcases a spinning, compact single-fluid drivetrain assembly, which then transitions into a solid metallic model against an orange background.
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
Improved efficiency unlocked through weight reduction and an innovative, single-fluid drivetrain.
Target 3: Lower Carbon Footprint
[Visuals]
An aerial top-down view of the white vehicle driving through a dense canopy of green trees, transitioning into a low-angle shot of a sunlit forest.
[Text displays]
● Result: 10-10.4 tonnes lifecycle CO2
[Visuals]
A close-up of hands wearing gloves using a utility knife to precisely cut a sheet of red carbon composite material. A technician works carefully over a blue foam mold in an engineering facility. A time-lapse shows multiple crew members working around the vehicle with its doors and trunk open in a spacious garage bay.
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
A lower life-cycle CO2 footprint through the use of renewable energy and low-carbon materials.
The Concept Car and Partners
[Visuals]
The finished concept car rolls into a brightly lit space. A sweeping profile shot highlights the side panels, front headlights, and rear wing.
[Text displays]
● Sustainable
● Economical
● Efficient
[Visuals]
The camera moves inside the cabin to reveal a modern dashboard setup featuring a digital instrument cluster and a central screen.
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
The Triple 10 Challenge concept car is proof it's possible to create a more sustainable, economical, and efficient battery electric vehicle...
[Visuals]
A pack of Shell Recharge fluid sits prominently on a table inside a garage workshop, with the concept car blurred in the background.
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
...powered by Shell's thermal fluid...
[Visuals]
The screen transitions to a clean white background displaying a series of engineering and technology partner logos in succession.
[Logo displays]
● Horiba Mira
● RML Group
● Empel Systems
● Pentaxia
● Carbon ThreeSixty
● Engys
● Chasestead
● SHD Composites
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
...and in collaboration with industry leaders.
Conclusion
[Visuals]
A man and a woman smile while driving the vehicle down a winding countryside road. The car is then filmed from a low angle as it swiftly drives past the camera, followed by a trailing shot showing the rear of the car disappearing down the lane.
[Text displays]
● Powering E-Motion
[Conversation/ speech: Narrator]
Join us as we strive to accelerate the next chapter of electric mobility.
[Animated sequence]
The text fragments slide together on screen to lock into the final project logo alongside the Shell Recharge fluid bottle.
[Text displays]
● TRIPLE 10 CHALLENGE
● Charge faster | Go further | Drive cleaner
[Animated sequence]
The video closes with a clean white cut-out animation of the iconic Shell pecten logo.
[Text displays]
● Powering E-Motion
The results
Charge Faster
Engineered with Shell Recharge thermal fluids and a compact battery, the Triple 10 Challenge vehicle safely charges from 10% to 80% in 9 minutes 54 seconds1, adding 245km range on a standard and widely available 175kW public charger.
Drive Cleaner
Utilising a smaller battery, simplified cooling circuit and lightweight, recycled components, the vehicle achieved a total lifecycle emissions of 10 tonnes CO23, about 50%4 of the lifecycle emissions of comparable vehicles produced today.
Go Further
The Shell Triple 10 Challenge Concept car has been proven to achieve 10 km/kWh in driving economy – comfortably meeting the target of 10-km/kWh and adding over 30%2 improvement in overall energy efficiency compared to many current-generation EVs
How did we do it?
This B-segment vehicle demonstrates next‑generation electric vehicle capability, and offers the industry an alternative to the current reliance on ever-larger batteries by re‑imagining the fundamentals of thermal management.
Re-imagining the fundamentals of thermal management
The key to the Triple 10 Challenge carʼs performance is Shell Recharge thermal fluid. Unlike traditional cooling systems that use water-ethylene-glycol, Shellʼs dielectric fluid allows direct immersion cooling of the battery and powertrain components including the motor and power electronics.
This is the first road-worthy vehicle to have successfully demonstrated the potential of a simplified, single-circuit cooling architecture to efficiently manage the thermal load of the entire powertrain, even under the most extreme fast-charging scenario in real-world conditions.
By changing the physics of heat management across the battery and powertrain, weʼve unlocked the potential for faster charging, lighter systems and improved lifecycle efficiency – using technologies that exist and can scale today.
Our Partners
Horiba Mira
The engineering and testing expertise helped Shell validate its EV-Plus thermal fluid for electric vehicles, showing it can cool all EV powertrain components and support faster charging, improved performance and simpler design.
RML
They bring advanced EV and battery system expertise to the Triple 10 Challenge. Working with Shell, they helped develop a compact battery pack that charges from 10-80% in under 10 minutes using Shell EV‑Plus thermal fluid
Empel
Advanced electric motor and power-electronics technology helps support electrification by enabling high-performance, efficient electric drive solutions, complementing Shell’s EV products and services in powering electric mobility.
The Triple 10 Challenge
Join the race to rewrite EV performance
A bold new benchmark for mass-market EVs: a sub-10-minute charging, energy efficiency of 10 km per kWh, and a lifecycle CO₂ footprint of 10 tonnes. Shell is co-developing with world-class partners to transform the performance of the next-generation of EVs.
Cara Tredget, VP Mobility & Lubricants Technology for Shell.“With the Triple 10 Challenge concept car, we have unlocked the potential for faster charging, lighter systems and improved lifecycle efficiency by using our advanced thermal fluids. Together with our co-engineering partners, we are proud to use technologies that are available today and are scalable to support customers for their business into the future”
FAQs
There are plenty of cars that can charge from 10-80% in under 10 minutes already?
There are plenty of cars that can charge from 10-80% in under 10 minutes already?
Typically, Electric Vehicles (EVs) capable of a 10-minute charge require ultra-rapid chargers exceeding 300kW. However, the Triple Ten Challenge concept car takes a different approach. By pairing a smaller battery with Shell’s advanced thermal fluid, the system manages heat much more effectively than conventional base-plate cooled cells. This superior cooling allows a higher electrical current to safely flow through each cell. As a result, the vehicle achieves greater overall efficiency and can complete its 10-minute charge using standard 175kW chargers, which are widely available on today's public charging networks.
You’re not the first with immersion cooling for batteries - what makes Shell Thermal Management Fluid distinctive?
You’re not the first with immersion cooling for batteries - what makes Shell Thermal Management Fluid distinctive?
Shell’s Thermal Fluid has demonstrated through rigorous independent validation to have successfully rejected all the collected heat using a standard, off-the-shelf radiator. This proves our specialised fluid can be a highly suitable replacement for traditional Water-Ethylene-Glycol coolants to cool the immersed battery, motor, and power electronics.
Our Thermal Fluid has proven potential to unlock the thermal management needs required for next-generation battery designs.
What are the top benefits of an immersion fluid over other battery cooling technologies?
What are the top benefits of an immersion fluid over other battery cooling technologies?
Simplified Design & Manufacturing: It moves BEV design from “a patchwork of cooling systems” to an elegant single fluid, single-circuit system. When implemented, this can help simplify manufacturing, reduce the number of required components, and streamline the supply chain.
Reduces Cost & Weight: By eliminating components (like dedicated WEG circuits, pumps and reservoirs), the system reduces overall vehicle weight, which in turn drives operational economy and cost-efficiency.
Enables Ultra-Fast Charging (UFC): Shell’s thermal fluid specially designed for advanced thermal management of EVs is the key enabler for sub-10-minute charging (from 10% to 80%). We have now proven this same fluid can also handle all other powertrain cooling needs simultaneously.
Boosts Performance: The system promotes enhanced vehicle performance and allows for optimal drivetrain operation.
What do you hope to achieve from the Triple 10 Challenge?
What do you hope to achieve from the Triple 10 Challenge?
Our goal is to prove to the industry that Shell’s advanced thermal fluids can unlock entirely new levels of performance in EV thermal management.
Building on the real-world data and experience we’re gathering from the Triple Ten Challenge concept car, we hope to partner with OEMs and battery suppliers to share our expertise. Together, we want to collaborate on the development of next-generation EVs that are lighter, highly efficient, simpler to manufacture, and more cost-effective.
Further information
Disclaimers
1 Charging performed from 10–80% SOC (State of Charge) under uniform cell temperature conditions using 175kW charger.
2 Reference cycle used: WLTC (Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Cycle).
3 The Triple 10 Challenge concept vehicle has been developed to demonstrate what is technically achievable under optimized conditions. These conditions include the use of 100% renewable electricity vehicle charging over the 200,000 km lifetime of the vehicle via the Shell Recharge network in the UK, powered by certified renewable electricity. The results are derived from a Shell internal life cycle assessment in line with ISO 14040 &14044 standards drawing on emission factor data from component suppliers and manufacturers, recognized LCA databases and literature publications. Actual results may vary under real-world conditions.
4 The indicated reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions relative to typical battery electric vehicles is based on a comparison with a published life cycle assessment study conducted by Ricardo in 2023 for the European Commission (PDF) and assuming the same vehicle lifetime of 200,000 km. Differences in underlying methodological assumptions and vehicle specifications (including vehicle size and battery capacity), as well as use-phase conditions mean that the emissions reduction should be regarded as indicative only. Actual outcomes may vary in real-world applications.