While Tesla has been busy expanding its proprietary Supercharger network for EV owners, oil giant BP is setting its sights on becoming a massive player in the high-powered charging game too. The fossil fuel behemoth has an audacious plan to spend $1 billion installing over 3,000 new charging points across the US by 2030 – and it wants Tesla’s help to get there quickly.
Rather than recreating the wheel, BP is looking to piggyback on Tesla’s well-established Supercharger tech and real estate. The company has already inked a $100 million deal to procure Supercharger hardware from Tesla, with initial deployment slated for later this year and early 2025.
However, BP isn’t just licensing the physical charging stalls. They have their eyes on actually acquiring prime Supercharger station locations to kickstart their nationwide charging blitz according to BP pulse Americas CEO Sujay Sharma.
“If there are stranded real estate partners who are looking for someone to call, they should feel free to pick up the phone and call me or look me up on LinkedIn,” Sharma told Bloomberg. The company is “aggressively looking to acquire real estate to scale our network.”
Gigahubs Galore
A central part of BP’s electrification strategy involves building out “Gigahubs” – massive charging plazas with 12 or more high-powered stalls. These large-scale hubs will be crucial for enabling long road trips and serving commercial fleets as EV adoption swells.
Buying up existing Supercharger sites could give BP a prime headstart in rapid Gigahub deployment compared to having to source and develop new locations from scratch. With $1 billion in budgeted investment, BP certainly has the financial means to become a huge charging station mogul.
Tesla has long blazed the trail for viable nationwide EV road tripping by strategically peppering highways with its proprietary Supercharger network. Now legacy titans like BP want a piece of that same electric refueling pie to stay relevant.
While competitors have introduced their own charging networks, tapping into Tesla’s already-established Supercharger program could be an accelerated path to scale. Over 100,000 charging plugs planned by 2030, BP is betting big that the old adage will ring true: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.