BP has slashed 10 percent the workforce or 100 jobs in its electric vehicle charging business — BP Pulse. BP has also exited from several markets after a bet on rapid growth in EV fleets didn’t work well for the energy giant, Reuters news report said.
Canalys forecasts the size of the global EV market will be 17.5 million units, growing by 27.1 percent in 2024.
BP CEO Murray Auchincloss aims to focus on the most profitable segments as it battles investor doubts over its plan to shift away from oil and gas to low-carbon energy.
BP EV Charging Business
BP is taking a revision in its strategies after making investment in EV charging business. BP earlier inked a $1.3 billion cash deal to purchase TravelCenters of America with 280 centers.
Earlier, BP had plans to invest €1 billion in a joint venture with Iberdrola with the aim of deploying 5,000 charge points by 2025 and 11,700 by 2030. The company already has over 300 operational fast (>50kW) and ultra-fast (>150kW) EV charge points.
In October 2023, BP opened the UK’s largest EV charging hub called Gigahub that can charge 180 electric vehicles at the same time.
BP Pulse has reduced the number of countries it focuses on from 12 to four – the United States, Britain, Germany and China. BP Pulse also earmarked Australia, New Zealand and France as growth countries for its EV charging business.
As a result, BP Pulse cut over 100 jobs in recent months, or over 10 percent of its workforce of 900, with many employees being moved into other divisions and only a handful leaving the company.
EV charging remains one of five growth engines for BP, which is betting on customers spending more time at its convenience sites while powering up their cars using fast chargers.
BP had over 29,000 charging points globally at the end of 2023, compared with 22,000 a year earlier, it said in its annual report. It aims to have 100,000 points by 2030.
It is not clear that BP will make significant changes in capital expenditure plans for 2024 and beyond in the wake of changes in its EV strategy. BP incured Capex of $16.3 billion in 2023. BP is aiming for Capex of $16 billion per year in 2024 and 2025.
“Our EV ambitions have not changed. The changes at BP Pulse are a step towards ensuring that we can execute our goals with even greater precision and effectiveness,” BP said.
BP last May also shut down its home EV charging business. The company now focuses mostly on fast charging hubs.
BP says it expects returns from its EV charging and convenience stores operations to exceed 15 percent and create $1.5 billion in EBITDA by 2025.
Baburajan Kizhakedath