I had to smile at the news of BP getting more into e-mobility because I remember being selected for a BP panel years ago when the company decided to “become green.” It basically painted its logo green, in perfectly logical corporate fashion. A decade later, BP Downstream has acquired UK electric vehicle (EV) charging station network Chargemaster. But this acquisition hasn’t been BP’s only EV move in recent months.
BP Downstream Sees Future In E-Mobility
Chargemaster is the UK’s largest EV charging network company. It operates over 6,500 charge points across the country. Chargemaster also designs, builds, sells, and maintains EV charging stations for businesses and personal residences.
Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive off of BP Downstream, said: “Bringing together the UK’s leading fuel retailer and its largest charging company, BP Chargemaster will deliver a truly differentiated offer for the country’s growing number of electric vehicle owners.
“At BP we believe that fast and convenient charging is critical to support the successful adoption of electric vehicles. Combining BP’s and Chargemaster’s complementary expertise, experience and assets is an important step towards offering fast and ultra-fast charging at BP sites across the UK and to BP becoming the leading provider of energy to low carbon vehicles, on the road or at home.”
BP Gets Greener, Slowly
Far from us to criticize a good move from a company with a shady public image, but I am getting older and would like to see the greenification pace of corporations match that of their quick shooting press releases. Our readers are also far too savvy and will quickly highlight the glaring strategic oddities.
Frustrations aside, BP is getting greener, even if tentatively (considering its global portfolio). Publicly, BP estimates that by 2040 there will be 12 million EVs on UK roads, up from around 135,000 in 2017.
BP is sitting on one of the UK’s largest retail networks, making it particularly well positioned to provide EV charging access to millions of drivers. It has 1,200 service stations across the country. The company is also intent on rolling out what it calls “ultra-fast charging infrastructure, including 150kW rapid chargers capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes.” We invite BP to read our latest CHAdeMO story on how the system is now ready to handle 400 kW of really ultra-fast charging stations.
Where Will BP Chargemaster Go From Here?
Although the Chargemaster deal is chump change in BP’s deep pockets, it could lead to huge growth in the Chargemaster EV charging network. We look forward to our UK readers letting us know about their experiences using the renewed BP Chargemaster system.
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