BP to buy UK's largest electric car charging company Chargemaster

BP has agreed to buy the UK's largest electric vehicle charging company, Chargemaster.

The oil giant, which did not disclose any financial details of the deal, estimated that there will be 12 million electric vehicles on UK roads by 2040, up from around 135,000 in 2017.

Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive of BP Downstream, said: "Bringing together the UK’s leading fuel retailer and its largest charging company, BP Chargemaster will deliver a truly differentiated offer for the country’s growing number of electric vehicle owners.

"At BP we believe that fast and convenient charging is critical to support the successful adoption of electric vehicles. Combining BP’s and Chargemaster’s complementary expertise, experience and assets is an important step towards offering fast and ultra-fast charging at BP sites across the UK and to BP becoming the leading provider of energy to low carbon vehicles, on the road or at home."

Chargemaster has more than 6,500 electric vehicle charging points across the country. It also designs, builds, sells and maintains EV charging units for a wide range of locations, including for home charging.

Chargemaster chief executive David Martell said the acquisition marks "a true milestone in the move towards low carbon motoring in the UK".

"I am truly excited to lead the Chargemaster team into a new era backed by the strength and scale of BP, which will help us maintain our market-leading position and grow the national POLAR charging network to support the large range of exciting new electric vehicles that are coming to market in the next couple of years."

The move from BP comes less than a year after rival Shell agreed to buy Dutch-based electric vehicle charging company NewMotion.

At 1110 BST, BP shares were down 0.2% to 580.70p.