BP announce installation of fast EV chargers across their UK filling station network

BP have announced that they’ll be following Shell and installing fast EV chargers at their network of filling stations across the UK. We like this. It makes perfect sense, and with it we’ll see more coffee shops, restaurants and even convenience retail at these sites. Even with fast charging, a twenty minute visit is more likely than the five minutes it takes to fill a car with petrol or diesel.

BP missed a real trick when, having invested heavily in solar over a decade ago, it divested all its solar interests, just as the solar global boom took off. Many of the canopies over its BP Connect filling stations have solar panels on top and this is where fuel stations could really make money; when the electricity is used at the site at which it is generated, solar costs less than 5p per unit. Customers charging their cars would happily pay the same price that they pay at home - around 15p/unit. That’s some margin. Add to this the increased profitability from the coffee/food/retail offer at these sites and suddenly the slender profits being made on every litre of petrol look very meagre indeed.

This is probably the only way petrol stations as we know them will exist in a decade..

Read the Times report here..

If you’re a business which receives customers in their cars, and are working out how to make EV charging viable, contact us here to discuss how solar can provide the cheap additional electricity you’ll need.