BP buys UK's leading EV charging company

[idpickering]

•BP has entered into an agreement to buy Chargemaster- the operator of the UK’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging network and the leading supplier of EV charging infrastructure
•The acquisition is an important step to scaling up and deploying fast and ultra-fast charging on BP’s UK forecourts
• Chargemaster will be rebranded BP Chargemaster

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/ ... aster.html

[Gengulphus]

Nothing stated in that announcement that I can see about what BP are paying for Chargemaster. Also, no RNS announcement of the acquisition, which indicates strongly that it's a pretty trivial acquisition for BP in financial terms. So I'd say the only real significance of the acquisition for HYP owners is some reassurance that BP is doing what it pretty obviously ought to be doing, i.e. making its service stations cater for electric vehicles as well as petrol and diesel ones. Don't expect a significant contribution to dividends anytime in the reasonably foreseeable future!

Gengulphus

[NeilW]

This follows on from Shell acquiring NewMotion.

Bobby got excited by it anyway https://youtu.be/Qwe6TViZO_w

[Alaric]

i.e. making its service stations cater for electric vehicles as well as petrol and diesel ones.

I would have thought there's a problem with land usage. I'd imagine the service stations with the highest turnovers are in suburban areas. Whilst these might have 12 pumps or more, a car filling up with petrol or diesel is only going to be there a handful of minutes. Expansion could be difficult because of the residential use of the surrounding land.

Motorway service areas seem to have ever increasing areas of their car parks devoted to electric vehicle charging. MSAs are best avoided for filling up a car as they charge 10 to 15 p more per litre than petrol stations in competitive areas. Out of town supermarkets can have massive car parks as well, particular if adjacent to motorways where no other land use is possible. These may also have the capacity for vast numbers of charging bays.

[BobGe]

It will be interesting to observe the level of premium that gets billed for convenience to users of such charging points. It's not surprising that big oil is keen to get a foothold.

[moorfield]

Expansion could be difficult because of the residential use of the surrounding land.

Of more interest to me in this business are the companies developing mobile charging. Once you start seeing charging vans on motorway hard shoulders you'll know EVs have truly "arrived" (sic). Another 10 years I reckon.

[NeilW]

Whilst these might have 12 pumps or more, a car filling up with petrol or diesel is only going to be there a handful of minutes.

So will electric cars - 150kw chargers are starting to come on stream which can fill a car up in 10 minutes (and which buffer the grid with batteries). Just long enough to wander around the convenience store and pick up your snacks.

Once the chargers become widespread enough, you won't bother brimming the battery. Instead you'll just plug it in while you go to the shop.

What might get in the way are the 'Gas Guzzler' electric cars that have a low mileage per kWh.

As well as chargers, it'll be interesting to see if the energy companies start picking up battery technology firms for storage.

[NeilW]

Of more interest to me in this business are the companies developing mobile charging.

I reckon they'd be far more appealing if they plugged a freezer into the battery and did a sideline selling ice creams.

[Gengulphus]

i.e. making its service stations cater for electric vehicles as well as petrol and diesel ones.

I would have thought there's a problem with land usage. I'd imagine the service stations with the highest turnovers are in suburban areas. Whilst these might have 12 pumps or more, a car filling up with petrol or diesel is only going to be there a handful of minutes. Expansion could be difficult because of the residential use of the surrounding land.

Not disagreeing with you, but the article that is the subject of this thread does say:

Under its new name, BP Chargemaster will rollout ultra-fast charging infrastructure, including 150 kW chargers capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes.

BP’s UK customers can expect to see BP Chargemaster chargers appearing on forecourts over the next 12 months.

So while I think there probably is a problem, it seems that BP think it's a solvable problem. Whether they're thinking of developing the charging technology further to speed up charging a bit more, possibly being able to make more efficient use of forecourt space in some way, using the fact that quite a few drivers take longer in the forecourt than is strictly necessary because of buying some snacks, etc, while paying the bill, or something else, I don't know.

Gengulphus

[Alaric]

Under its new name, BP Chargemaster will rollout ultra-fast charging infrastructure, including 150 kW chargers capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes.

Stopping for 10 minutes every 100 miles, or even 20 minutes every 200 is within the range of acceptability. It's still going to cause congestion at peak times in the typical filling station of 10 to 12 pumps. Perhaps we'd see 24 hour opening and late night usage. It's not going to be free though, once the technology is established.

Is there an assumption that ultra fast chargers are going to be too expensive or unavailable for domestic use?

[Meatyfool]

[Is there an assumption that ultra fast chargers are going to be too expensive or unavailable for domestic use?

Absolutely. I standard 100A domestic supply is unlikely to be able to accommodate much more than a 7Kw charger. If you have a three phase supply, then joy-of-joys you can go way higher, but that is a small minority of domestic supplies (I think!).

The 150Kw chargers referred to will only be usable by the very latest and future cars. I think my Leaf's ChaDemo port maxes at around 50kW, but as I only ever charge at home, not a concern of mine!

As for queues at chargers - yes, August bank hols and the like I guess. But not for a long while. There are just such a tiny number of electric cars around - there is plenty of time to up the charging infrastructure, and news that BP are getting into the game bodes well for a charging-infrastructure-led demand for electric cars. If you see chargers at the pumps (mostly) everywhere you go, then you are going to start looking at electric cars, aren't you?

Comments on Robbie Llewellyn's Fully Charged video on this topic are full of people ranting about how BP are going to stitch us up with fossil fuel like prices for electric car charging are nonsense - I would say a significant number of electric cars in the future will charge mostly at home - the real winners will be those who can charge at home and work. Too much competition for forecourts to try monopolistic pricing.

Meatyfool..

[idpickering]

Under its new name, BP Chargemaster will rollout ultra-fast charging infrastructure, including 150 kW chargers capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes.

Stopping for 10 minutes every 100 miles, or even 20 minutes every 200 is within the range of acceptability. It's still going to cause congestion at peak times in the typical filling station of 10 to 12 pumps. Perhaps we'd see 24 hour opening and late night usage. It's not going to be free though, once the technology is established.

Is there an assumption that ultra fast chargers are going to be too expensive or unavailable for domestic use?

I still don't fancy owning an electric car tbh, it seems to be a lot of hassle. I'll stick with my petrol powered Peugeot 208 thanks.

Ian.

[tjh290633]

So 150/6=25kWh is enough for 100 miles? That sounds optimistic to me.

TJH

[nmdhqbc]

Better to have them there than not but I think petrol stations aren't quite the right place for them. Supermarket / shopping car parks makes much more sense. You shop for longer. Having loads of slower chargers there makes much more sense. Charging over a longer period slower is better for the batteries too.

[Meatyfool]

So 150/6=25kWh is enough for 100 miles? That sounds optimistic to me.

TJH

Yes- ish. I drive carefully and get 5.0-5.2 miles/kwh. In the summer. In the winter, just under 4.0.

If you have a lead foot however or drive at high speeds on the motorway.

Hmm, that's a no for an awful lot of people then!

Having said that, I was never particularly lead footed pre-EV, but I did start being more careful when I did get my Leaf. That may be because I have such a small battery pack - 24Kwh. I wonder if other drivers will moderate their driving the same way if their first EV purchase has a 100Kwh battery pack?

Meatyfool..

[dspp]

You don't need fast chargers for domestic use.

For simplicity, mentally split the charger types into fast & slow.

The slow chargers can charge from near-empty to near-full in a day or a night. They are origin or destination chargers, i.e. mostly at your home or your work. These should be 13A or 16A, supplies and barely require any infrastructure.

The fast chargers can charge a substantial amount of your battery in less than half an hour. They are for transitory use, mostly motorways, where people need to complete long journeys. These require very substantial electricity supplies, such that a typical multi-charger motorway site will require an additional (or upgraded) grid connection. Even then I anticipate mid-Summer congestion .... (in a UK context, or say, Xmas or Thanksgiving, etc)

At present we get all our liquid fuel at filling stations. In the future we might get (say) three quarters of it at origin or destination, and the other quarter at transit stations.

Over the next 20-years a lot of filling stations are going to go sub-economic.

All the electricity (utility) companies are all over this like a rash, so too are the major oils, so too are the charger pure-plays, so too are the motor manufacturers.

In the UK-context the key issue that needs to be resolved is that of parking space allocation and provision of slow chargers on residential streets, i.e. terraces, apartment blocks with no dedicated parking: all the people with no personal driveway, or no controlled communal land/parking. This is why (for example) it is difficult for me to be an EV early-adopter as I live in a terrace with permit-parking and quite frequently my car is parked 100m up the road, so I can't even (illegally ?) run an extension cord across 1m of pavement at night.

A large part of the plays that I see for Chargemaster etc (and quite likely supermarkets) is to replace the residential parking charging, i.e. it is a bet that the parking space allocation etc will not get resolved (in the UK). That in turn will drive people like me to use what may be slow (or become medium) speed chargers at supermarket carparks whilst doing the shopping. It is the only use-case I can see that will provide a substitute for on-street origin charging in sufficient volume.

(and yes, I do inject my point-of-view into some of the people making some of these decisions )

Just my 2euc,
- dspp

[monabri]

Threat to big oil from EVs....buy the "new entrants" distribution network......

It will be interesting to see if Big Oil repeats this in other countries or is this a trial?

As for BP ( or Shell) ripping off customers with inflated prices I think we can safely assume the majority of the EV recharging cost will be down to the UK government mandating higher prices to recoup the tax take on reduced petrol/diesel sales (at which point, EV uptake will diminish).

Q: How long will it be before someone is taken to "compo court" because their recharging lead has caused a trip injury?

ps...in street charging.... little Johnny's new game will be to unplug charging cars!

[dspp]

Threat to big oil from EVs....buy the "new entrants" distribution network......

It will be interesting to see if Big Oil repeats this in other countries or is this a trial?

They already did .........

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-newmo ... KKBN1CH1R5

[Alaric]

In the UK-context the key issue that needs to be resolved is that of parking space allocation and provision of slow chargers on residential streets, i.e. terraces, apartment blocks with no dedicated parking: all the people with no personal driveway, or no controlled communal land/parking.

Conversion of the local filling station to fast charge could make a certain amount of sense as a solution. It would likely need a system of booking a slot to reduce waiting times for access.

[Meatyfool]

Better to have them there than not but I think petrol stations aren't quite the right place for them. Supermarket / shopping car parks makes much more sense. You shop for longer. Having loads of slower chargers there makes much more sense. Charging over a longer period slower is better for the batteries too.

And a stonking huge roof to put solar panels onto as well! Hold that thought, a massive car park to turn into a solar car port to boot.

The shop roof may not be the right axis for solar panels, but they could easily rework their car parks to maximise generation.

Meatyfool..