Total Gas & Power is to launch a new electric vehicle charging offer to the 175,000 business sites it supplies throughout the UK after agreeing a reseller partnership with ChargePoint.
Customers of the oil and gas giant’s UK business supplier arm will be able to enter into new agreements for the installation of charge points supplied by ChargePoint which will carry out the work via a nationwide delivery partner.
Chargers ranging from 22kW up to 500kW speeds will be available depending on the customers’ needs, along with full ownership or rental agreements to be made with Total Gas & Power, which could tie the installs into a customer’s overall electricity supply deal.
The charge points will be delivered on an ad hoc basis, rather than the model pursued by ChargePoint and Instavolt which as first saw the latter make significant bulk orders to drive its deployment of 50kW chargers.
Sean Guerin, business engagement manager for Total Gas & Power, told Current±: “Somebody makes an enquiry, we ask them some standard questions to form an opinion on what they might require. At the same time there’s also the offer of a site visit…and then it’s a case of liaising with the customer to get something installed. It’s very much about whatever the customer needs.”
He added that ChargePoint had been selected owing to the connected nature of its technology, and follows growing demand from a number of the company’s existing business clients.
Sion Roberts, general manager for Total Gas & Power, said “Recognising that the energy requirements of businesses have progressed well beyond the simple supply of gas and electricity, we are delighted to partner with ChargePoint.
“The relationship means our customers will have access to industry-leading EV charging technology that helps them meet the changing dynamics of vehicle fuelling both for their staff and customers alike.”
The partnership also falls in line with the wider group’s ambitions to transition its business model away from purely oil and gas, as Guerin explained.
“There’s a group wide commitment from the very top of the company in France to be a responsible energy major and take on all of what that entails. Our interpretation was in helping customers meet their environmental needs as they move forward,” he said.
It also follows sweeping policy across the UK to promote the uptake of EVs and deployment of charge points and proposed bans across Europe on the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles in the coming decades.
It is thought that such measures will lead to growing opportunities in the e-mobility space, particularly in the commercial and industrial sector where Aurora Energy Research recently claimed would offer a £6 billion opportunity to 2040.
Commenting on the deal, Mark Kerstens, vice president for strategic accounts at ChargePoint, said: “The transportation landscape is evolving at a rapid pace and partnerships like this are essential to provide immediate, widely accessible charging solutions to support the ever-growing number of EV drivers on the road.
“We look forward to working with Total Gas & Power to provide businesses across the UK with the opportunity to help us lay the groundwork for the next generation of fuelling.”
The new partnership is the latest foray into e-mobility for Total, which last month completed the acquisition of the French firm G2mobility. Meanwhile, it will serve to bolster ChargePoint’s efforts to deploy 2.5 million EV charging points by 2025.
