Global oil giant BP has struck a deal with Tesla to acquire ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) charging hardware units from Telsa Motors.
This is the first time BP has purchased EV charging hardware from an independent network for its pulse network, the company said.
Under the $100 million deal, the goal is to expand BP’s pulse public network across the U.S. as well as enabling support for EV fleets in deploying chargers at private deports for enterprise users.
The rollout is planned to begin in 2024 at locations across BP brands like TravelCenters of America, Thorntons, AM/PM and Amoco. Additional locations for the EV charging sites will be placed at BP’s gigahub in major metropolitan areas and third-party locations such as Hertz, which was a collaboration BP previously made.
The first locations will be installed in:
- Houston
- Phoenix
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- Washington, D.C.
Why it matters
Tesla has been making major moves to increase the users that support its Supercharger network technology, otherwise known as North American Charging Standard (NACS).
The EV vendor has been making deals with automotive OEMs like General Motors, Ford, Rivian, Volvo and BMW to allow their proprietary vehicles to charge on its 12,000 high-speed charger network across North America.
Additionally, the NACS is being supported by third-party EV charging vendors at a rapid pace which accelerated after the automotive OEMs agreed to support a new connector for their vehicles. Just this month, ChargePoint began rolling out these NACS supported charging points.
In the short term, these deals will help increase the number of EV charging points in North America for the rollout of EVs, which is expected to increase substantially in the next 10 to 15 years. Also, recent reports show the lack of charging stations and quality of these points are one of the major sticking points to new sales of EVs.
In the long term, it is unclear if these EV vendors, who are in direct competition with Telsa, will continue to support the NACS connector once thousands of their own EV chargers in their own networks are deployed.
This could be backed up by the recent deal seven OEMs made to create a joint venture company to build a high-powered EV charging network in North America. That initiative is aimed at building at least 30,000 new chargers across major cities and highways with combined access to CCS and NACS connectors. The joint venture is expected to be established later this year.
