bp and Volkswagen have announced that they intend to work together on extending and speeding up the deployment of ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities at bp retail sites across the UK, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Extensive ultra-fast charging networks are seen by both companies as essential to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.
On Monday bp and Volkswagen signed a memorandum of understanding for their collaboration and intend to finalise agreements in the coming months. This will bring together two leading global players in mobility to develop a network of ultra-fast chargers at convenient and high-quality locations – bp sites, and Aral sites in Germany.
The partnership should give EV drivers greater confidence in being able to access nearby, reliable, quality charging options. bp estimates approximately 90 per cent of people in the UK and Germany live within a 20-minute drive of a bp or Aral site.
The agreement would also make bp the Volkswagen Group’s EV charging partner, with the integration of bp’s charging network into VW Group vehicles to make finding and paying for charging fast and simple.
The network would also be available for other EV customers as part of the bp pulse network (Aral pulse in Germany), improving access to ultra-fast charging for EV drivers more widely.
Emma Delaney, bp’s executive vice president, customers and products, said enabling the rapid expansion of electric vehicles is core to bp’s plans to grow its convenience and mobility business, and supports the company’s net-zero ambition.
“Partnering with Volkswagen Group – one of the world’s great automotive companies – we intend to address a key concern for people considering buying an EV: range anxiety. Together we can provide drivers in the UK and Europe with the fast, reliable and convenient charging solutions they need to feel more confident about making the switch,” she said.
“By deploying ultra-fast charging, rapidly and at large scale, we can establish a leading position and help accelerate the take-up of EVs.”
Thomas Schmall, Member of the Board of Volkswagen Group and CEO of Volkswagen Group Components, added: “Ultra-fast charging is the key enabler for e-mobility and therefore a main pillar for Volkswagen´s transformation.”
“Together with strong partners like bp we take this important matter into our hands and will build up to 18,000 new chargers in Europe. That is about 1/3 of the estimated ultra-fast charging demand in 2025.”
Electrification is at the heart of bp’s convenience and mobility strategy and the company aims to grow its network of public EV charging points by 2030 to over 70,000 worldwide. bp pulse is already the most used EV charging network in the UK [1] and plans to have around 250 ultrafast chargers operating at bp retail sites by the end of this year.
In Germany, Aral pulse is also already rolling out ultrafast charging points across its retail sites – expecting to have 500 installed by year-end.
bp and Aral retail sites are ideal locations to offer a superior charging experience for EV drivers. They are conveniently located, safe, manned by trained staff and offer many other services.
Ultra-fast charging units, with a power output greater than 150 kilowatts, can charge a vehicle with the appropriate battery technology for a range of around 160 kilometres in just over 10 minutes – broadly as fast as refuelling at the pump.
[1] The Zap-Map database includes charge point data on c.95 per cent of UK public charge points and records live charging sessions on approximately 70 per cent of these charge points. From these live charging points on the Zap-Map database, in Q3 2020, bp pulse recorded the largest number of charging sessions and the largest aggregate charging minutes. Zap-Map cannot guarantee that all the charging sessions from all the live networks have been recorded as from time to time network connections fail which may result in charging sessions not being recorded.
