Good news Europeans, thanks to a partnership between BP and Volkswagen, electric vehicle charging across the continent could be getting a boost.
What’s happening
- VW and BP will work together to deploy 18,000 new ultra fast chargers in Europe, but it hasn’t said by when.
- It seems the chargers will be added at bp and Aral sites in the UK and Germany to begin with, BP said in an announcement.
- VW says it will integrate BP’s charging tech into its vehicles so that finding and paying for charging is easy and simple.
- The points will also be open to the wider non-VW driving public as part of the BP and Aral pulse charging networks.
Why it matters
- BP says that around 90% of the population of the UK and Germany live within 20 minutes of a BP or Aral filling station.
- With demand for fast EV charging growing, we need more big players to work together to improve infrastructure.
- For VW drivers, it could make fast-charging as simple as a Tesla using the Supercharger network.
Effectively what we’re seeing here is the start of what will likely be an industry-wide transition for big oil companies. A transition that will see them move to supporting electric vehicles, and produce more renewable energy.
In terms of infrastructure, most petroleum companies are ready to go. They have forecourts in good locations, all we need to do is switch out pumps for chargers.
That won’t be easy, as there is still significant demand for dinojuice, but there will come a day when batteries can charge quickly, and people won’t need fuel anymore.
When that day comes, you can bet that old petrol forecourts will still be here, they will just pump electrons instead of gasoline. VW and BP has made its commitment, and we’ll be making sure it delivers.
Published March 25, 2021 — 10:35 UTC