Oil Giant Total Buys London’s Largest EV Charging Network
French oil giant Total has bought the London’s largest EV charging network from another French giant, Bolloré Group. Source London, as the charge point network is called, includes more than 1,600 charge points. It was under the Blue Point London portion of Bolloré’s business, which is what Total acquired.
This is not at all Total’s first foray into cleantech. Among other investments, it bought a majority stake un US solar power giant SunPower years ago and still holds that majority stake.
Actually, this isn’t even Total’s first investment in EV charge point networks. Total is also involved in “the installation and operation of charge points networks in the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam (Netherlands) and the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium).”
Source London isn’t just the biggest EV charge point network in London — it accounts for more than half of the city’s charge points. Furthermore, it intends to increase the number of charge points in its network by 10× before the end of 2025. That would mean 16,000, which sounds like a lot until you look at Total’s broader plans. The energy company wants to be operating more than 150,000 electric vehicle charge points across Europe by 2025.
Total Gas & Power Limited, another subsidiary of Total, will supply the Source London network with 100% renewable electricity for the charging stations. Reportedly, Source London users will see no difference in service — initially, at least.
There’s now a pattern of oil and other energy giants acquiring or investing in EV charging companies. A few years ago, Shell bought NewMotion, BP bought the UK’s largest charging network (Chargemaster) in 2018, and Engie acquired EVBox, two of the most notable investments in the sector.
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