Total charges into London EV market

Total has bought Blue Point London from the Bolloré Group for an undisclosed sum, taking over the management and operation of Source London and its 1,600 on-street charge points.

Launched in 2010, the current Source London network has been developed in cooperation with the London Boroughs and currently represents more than half of the charge points in operation in the capital city. Source London growth perspectives are supported by the City of London’s ambition to be a zero carbon city by 2050, notably with the aim of increasing tenfold the number of charge points within five years.

In a statement, Total said it is committed to powering this charging network with electricity 100% guaranteed from renewable sources, supplied by its subsidiary Total Gas & Power Limited.

Already active in the installation and operation of charge points networks in the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam (Netherlands) and the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium), the UK acquisition reinforces Total’s position in the European electric mobility space. The Group is pursuing its development in major European cities, in line with its ambition of operating more than 150,000 electric vehicle charge points by 2025.

“By combining today these existing infrastructures with Total’s know-how in terms of installation, operation and management of public electric vehicle charging networks, we are starting a new phase, supporting the expansion of electric mobility in London.” said Alexis Vovk, President, Marketing & Services at Total. “In collaboration with our partners and the local authorities, we will be able to meet both the strong growth in demand for on-street charge points and the needs for new mobility solutions of London users.”

This transfer of activities will have no impact for the current users of the Source London service and the transaction should be closed by the year end.

Earlier this year Total announced it will install and operate up to 20,000 new public charging points in the Netherlands.

Through its affiliate Saft, and PSA with Opel, an €200 milion plant is being developed near Angoulême that will produce EV batteries from 2023.