bp to invest USD1 billion in EV charge points across US by 2030
British energy major bp announced plans to invest USD1 billion by 2030 into electric vehicle (EV) charge points across the United States. A cornerstone of the investment includes Hertz and bp announcing an intention to bring fast charging infrastructure to Hertz locations in major U.S. cities, such as Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
A number of the fast-charging installations will include gigahub locations. Gigahubs are large-scale fast charging hubs, such as one location previously announced by bp and Hertz at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The hubs will serve rideshare and taxi drivers, car rental customers and the general public at high-demand locations, such as airports. The buildout will be informed by telematics from Hertz’s fleet of connected cars.
“This is about more, faster. We’re bringing more, fast-charging options to more Americans for faster EV adoption,” said Dave Lawler, chairman and president of bp America. “Working alongside Hertz, we’re excited to drive the future of mobility.”
This announcement expands on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in September 2022 between Hertz and bp, which set out to develop a network of EV charging stations across Hertz’s national footprint of locations, powered by bp Pulse, bp’s global electrification and charging solution brand.
“As Hertz builds the largest EV rental fleet in North America, it is essential that our millions of customers—including leisure and business travelers, rideshare drivers and corporate clients—have access to a national network of reliable, fast chargers,” said Stephen Scherr, Hertz chair and CEO. “We are excited to be working with bp to build out charging at Hertz locations across the country, and to leverage telematic insights from the Hertz fleet to ensure that charging is located at the places where our customers need it most.”
Through large-scale purchases from Tesla, Polestar and GM, Hertz is assembling a diverse fleet of EVs at a range of price points. Hertz has tens of thousands of EVs available for rent at more than 750 Hertz locations across 38 U.S. states. Hertz’s objective is for one-quarter of its fleet to be electric by the end of 2024.
EV charging is one of bp’s five strategic transition growth engines in which the company expects to significantly grow investment through this decade. The other transition growth engines include bioenergy, hydrogen, convenience and renewables & power. Although the proportion may be different in the United States, by 2030, bp aims for half of its annual global investment to go into these businesses.
bp is aiming to enhance its ability to offer lower carbon transport solutions for customers by expanding EV charging and strategic convenience sites. Today, bp has 22,000 EV charge points worldwide and aims for more than 100,000 globally by 2030, of which approximately 90% are rapid or ultra-fast charging.
