ImpactAlpha, December 9 — If U.S. oil majors won’t help electrify transportation at home, the Europeans will. BP’s acquisition of Amply Power will help BP, formerly British Petroleum, build out electric vehicle charging in the U.S. and expand its global network to 70,000 charging points by 2030, from 11,000 now.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Amply charges commercial fleets, such as trucks, transit and school buses. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. EV charging is part of bp’s “ongoing commitment to help drive the energy transition in the US.,” said bp America’s David Lawler.
The oil giant is investing more than $1 billion to develop, with Norway’s Equinor, 4.4 gigawatts of wind power off the coasts of New York and Nantucket.
Charging rollout
BP in 2018 acquired Chargermaster, which operates Europe’s largest public charging network, for $170 million. Servicing commercial fleets is more complex, requiring software to manage fleets and energy costs. BP took a stake in San Francisco-based utility-scale solar developer Lightsource in 2017.
Forum Mobility this week raised $7.5 million in seed financing to decarbonize trucking. In November, Washington, D.C.-based Inspiration raised $200 million to scale its fleet charging services.
