bp plans to invest $1 billion into the development of charging infrastructure in the United States by 2030. A cornerstone of the investment includes Hertz and bp announcing an intention to bring fast charging infrastructure to Hertz locations in major cities, such as Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
A number of the fast-charging installations will include gigahubs locations. These are large-scale fast charging hubs, such as one location previously announced by bp and Hertz at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The hubs will serve rideshare and taxi drivers, car rental customers and the general public at high-demand locations, such as airports. The buildout will be informed by telematics from Hertz’s fleet of connected cars.
“This is about more, faster. We’re bringing more, fast-charging options to more Americans for faster EV adoption,” said Dave Lawler, chairman and president of bp America. “Working alongside Hertz, we’re excited to drive the future of mobility.”
EV charging is one of bp’s five strategic transition growth engines in which the company expects to significantly grow investment through this decade. The other transition growth engines include bioenergy, hydrogen, convenience and renewables & power. Although the proportion may be different in the US, by 2030, bp aims for half its annual global investment to go into these businesses.
bp is aiming to enhance its ability to offer lower carbon transport solutions for customers by expanding EV charging and strategic convenience sites. Today bp has 22,000 EV charge points worldwide and aims for more than 100,000 globally by 2030 – around 90% rapid or ultra-fast.
The announcement expands on the 2022 memorandum of understanding between Hertz and bp, which set out to develop a network of EV charging stations across Hertz’s national footprint of locations, powered by bp Pulse, bp’s global electrification and charging solution brand.
“As Hertz builds the largest EV rental fleet in North America, it is essential that our millions of customers — including leisure and business travelers, rideshare drivers and corporate clients – have access to a national network of reliable, fast chargers,” said Stephen Scherr, Hertz chair and CEO. “We are excited to be working with bp to build out charging at Hertz locations across the country, and to leverage telematic insights from the Hertz fleet to ensure that charging is located at the places where our customers need it most.”
Through large-scale purchases from Tesla, Polestar and GM, Hertz is assembling a diverse fleet of EVs at a range of price points. Hertz has tens of thousands of EVs available for rent at more than 750 Hertz locations across 38 states. Hertz’s objective is for one-quarter of its fleet to be electric by the end of 2024.
Hertz is helping to accelerate the mainstream adoption of EVs through its public private partnership, Hertz Electrifies. Working with cities, Hertz is bringing its EV fleet to communities across the country, while supporting the build out of charging infrastructure, creating educational and training opportunities for high-quality jobs in a new era of mobility, and engaging with local organizations to extend the benefits of electrification to underserved areas.
