TotalEnergies, SSE to launch electric vehicle charging business in UK and Ireland

By América Hernández

PARIS (Reuters) – French oil company TotalEnergies and British energy firm SSE are seeking to capture a 20% share of the electric vehicle (EV) fast charging market in Britain and Ireland by launching a joint venture called Source, the companies said Tuesday.

Source, a 50/50 partnership, will deploy and operate up to 3,000 fast charging points in both countries over the next five years, to be powered by renewable energy by both parent companies.

150-kilowatt (kW) fast-charging stations, which use direct current instead of alternating current, can take a typical EV battery from empty to full in 30 minutes to an hour.

TotalEnergies declined to provide a figure for the total investment, but said current fees for deploying 3,000 fast charging points, which use direct current electricity, were in the region of €300 million.

TotalEnergies and SSE are already partners in Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, Seagreen, while Total operates a network of 2,500 charging points in and around London and around 65,000 in mainland Europe, the majority of which are slow charging stations , which use alternating current.

“We have gained some experience in charging point management, construction, implementation and customer service… and SSE is well versed in the integrated electricity grid aspect of the business, so the partnership is very complementary,” Mathieu Solas, director of new mobility at TotalEnergies, told journalists at a briefing.

Oil majors Shell and BP are also ramping up their electric vehicle charging business in the UK, as Britain passed a mandate requiring new light vehicles to have zero emissions and Scotland targets one million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

(Reporting by America Hernandez in Paris; Editing by David Evans)