BP Cuts Jobs as Supermajor Scales Back EV Charging Unit

By Charles Kennedy - Apr 15, 2024

BP has cut over a tenth of its workforce in its EV charging business, BP Pulse, as the supermajor is downsizing the division and retreating from several countries to focus on just four key markets, Reuters reported on Monday, quoting sources at the company.        

BP has cut more than 100 out of BP Pulse’s 900 jobs, but many of the people have been transferred to other divisions and only a handful have left the supermajor, according to Reuters’ sources.   

BP Pulse is the electric vehicle (EV) charging business of BP, which has rapid and ultra-fast public EV charging networks in the UK and operates the largest number of sites with ultra-fast charging in Germany. BP considers its EV charging business a key element of its ambition to be a net-zero energy company by 2050.

However, BP has now scaled down some of the BP Pulse business and is focused its efforts on four key markets—the U.S., the UK, Germany, and China, the company told Reuters.

BP’s stock suffered early this decade when the company announced its net-zero strategy.

In early 2023, investors cheered BP’s reversal of some goals and its commitment to invest more in resilient oil and gas projects than previously planned and pump more hydrocarbons for longer to meet the world’s needs.

BP said in February 2023 it would be producing more oil and gas for longer and increase investment into oil and gas projects by an average of up to $1 billion a year until 2030. 

The move to scale back BP Pulse is also the result of slower-than-expected commercial EV fleet growth, as BP’s chief executive Murray Auchincloss told analysts at the latest earnings call in February.  

“We thought we'd be doing fleets as we started this. It's actually drifted more towards individual as opposed to fleets,” Auchincloss said.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com