BP add UK’s biggest electric car charger network to it’s portfolio of green assets.
With over 6,500 charge points Chargemaster is the UK’s largest electric car charger network. Although £130m is small change for the global oil business BP it represents a key shift of strategy. This follows Shell who purchased the Dutch electric car charger network, New Motion. Shell is already adding chargers to its forecourts to add to the 30,000 chargers that New Motion has throughout Europe.
BP estimates that there will be 12 million electric vehicles in the UK by 2040. This represents massive growth form the current 135,000, however some analysts believe it could be even higher.
The current Chargemaster network is branded as Polar in the UK and will be re-branded as BP Chargemaster. The Company will now prioritise ultra-fast 150KW charging, which can add around 450-600 miles of range per hour of charging. A 10 minute charge would add 100 miles of range which would be enough for most journeys.
David Nichols, a spokesman for BP, stated: “We have no doubt that the electric vehicle market is growing 
and will become a significant part of the transport sector in future.”
“Chargemaster is a leader in the UK market. We want to learn from them, and eventually, yes, grow the business worldwide.”
It said one of its goals was to speed up charging capability to enable chargers capable of delivering 100 miles of range in within 10 minutes.
Green Assets
This is an addition to BP’s portfolio of green assets, having agreed to invest $200m (£152m) into solar power company Lightsource in 2017. Lightsource is Europe’s largest solar development company. It focuses on the acquisition, development and long-term management of large-scale solar projects.
BP also announced plans to invest $5m in mobile electric vehicle charging company FreeWire Technologies in January, and in May it put $20m into StoreDot, the ultra-fast battery company.
