BP is not quite beyond petroleum, as its previous marketing slogan went.
But the company does have an ambitious target for electric vehicle charging points, which already number 13,000. BP plans to grow this number to 100,000. And it turns out, they’re about as profitable as conventional gas stations.
That’s according to BP CEO Bernard Looney on the company’s conference call presenting fourth-quarter results.
“We’re at the stage where the margins are equivalent. We probably think that they can get better,” Looney said, according to a transcript from FactSet. He didn’t quantify what those margins were.
He noted the utilization rate at its Hammersmith charging station in West London is 67%. “Many of the assumptions that people have in their plans are around single-digit utilization rates,” said Looney.
A charging customer, he adds, is spending longer than the typical gas station customer. “We see enormous opportunity on the convenience side,” Looney said.
BP said it’s aiming to earn between $9 billion and $10 billion by 2030 from “five transition growth engines” of bioenergy, convenience, electric vehicle charging, renewables and charging. BP’s capital expenditure last year on what it calls low-carbon energy was $1.56 billion, of the overall total of $12.85 billion.
BP more broadly earned $7.57 billion in 2021. BP shares BP, +0.38% BP, +1.40% edged up 0.7% in afternoon action in London, and shares have jumped 24% this year. Rival Shell SHEL, -1.60% has gained 26% this year, as both oil giants benefit from the surge in crude-oil prices.
