Shell to buy electric car charging providers

LONDON — Oil company Shell has signed an agreement to buy electric vehicle charging firm NewMotion. It did not disclose terms.

The company, which will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, operates more than 30,000 private electric charge points for homes and businesses in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the U.K.

Shell’s Vice President for New Fuels, Matthew Tipper, said Thursday that the deal will give customers “flexibility to charge their electric vehicles at home, work and on the go.” that happened in the wake of Hurricane Harvey closing a critical number of U.S. gasoline producers.

The sharp rise is expected to be temporary as the effects of the hurricane fade.

The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach the consumer, has risen 2.6 percent over the past 12 months. September’s burst of inflation is likely the result of oil refineries shuttering along the Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Harvey toward the end of August. As a result, gasoline prices surged 10.9 percent in September.

The jump in producer prices is occurring after years of subdued inflation. The Federal Reserve targets a 2 percent yearly increase in consumer prices in order to encourage economic activity, but the U.S. central bank has persistently missed that target for the past five years.