Plugging Into the Future: BP’s Billion-Dollar Bet on ChargePoint
By: Affan Bhimani
The Ivey Business Review is a student publication conceived, designed and managed by Honors Business Administration students at the Ivey Business School.
Introduction
Electric vehicles (EVs) are no longer the future, they are the present. In 2024, global EV sales surpassed 17.1 million, representing more than 14% of all vehicle sales worldwide. The United States saw over 21% year-over-year growth (2024), and automakers are phasing out internal combustion engine (ICE) development in favor of electric platforms. This momentum, fueled by climate policy, consumer demand, and capital markets, is reshaping transportation and forcing oil and gas giants to confront a rapidly accelerating energy transition.
As battery-electric models scale rapidly, one implication is clear: legacy energy players can no longer rely on internal combustion engines to deliver long-term growth. For over a century, downstream operations such as gasoline stations and convenience retail served as oil and gas majors’ most profitable and defensible assets. But as EVs become dominant, that business model is approaching obsolescence.
Oil and gas majors are facing a critical inflection point. Some, like Shell and TotalEnergies, have moved swiftly to diversify into electric mobility and renewables. BP, long viewed as a progressive energy company, has also begun this shift, but its current EV strategy lacks one critical piece: meaningful presence in North America’s urban and commercial charging market
The Oil & Gas Industry: At a Crossroads
The oil and gas industry is undergoing the most disruptive transformation in its history. Global net-zero targets, national EV mandates, and widespread electrification are converging to rapidly erode the long-term value of fossil-fuel-based transportation. Governments across Europe, North America, and Asia have committed to banning new ICE vehicle sales between 2030 and 2035. Automakers are responding by allocating more than $1.2 trillion to EV programs and supply chains by 2030.
For oil and gas players, the implications are existential. Historically, high-margin downstream operations such as fuel retail, and forecourt convenience, delivered stable cash flows and customer engagement. That infrastructure is now under threat, as EVs shift fueling from gas pumps to wall plugs.
Electrification is not simply about changing the powertrain, it is about redistributing the entire energy value chain. In this emerging system, electricity replaces gasoline, EV chargers replace pumps, and software platforms replace fuel cards. In short: energy companies that once dominated transportation risk losing their relevance unless they embed themselves in the EV ecosystem.
Some players are responding. Shell has acquired EV charging companies across Europe and the U.S., building a network of more than 140,000 public plugs. TotalEnergies has established itself in fast charging in France, the U.K., and Singapore. Even ExxonMobil has entered the EV battery materials space via lithium mining.
BP has signaled similar intent. In 2018, it acquired BP Pulse (formerly known as Chargemaster), the U.K.’s leading charging network. It later committed to deploying 100,000 charging points by 2030 and investing $1 billion into U.S. EV infrastructure. Yet, BP still lacks a significant footprint in North America’s urban charging market.
ChargePoint: A Platform in Search of a Partner
ChargePoint Holdings, Inc., (NYSE: CHPT) is a leading, electric vehicle (“EV”) network charging solutions provider in North America and Europe across three key verticals: commercial (e.g., retail, workplace, hospitality, parking, recreation), fleet (e.g., delivery, transit, shared mobility, motor pool) and residential (e.g., single family homes and multi-family apartments and condominiums). ChargePoint has activated approximately 300,000 ports (charging stations) on its network, including ~27,000 DC or “Fast-Charging” ports, with additional access to 700,000+ additional third-party ports globally. ChargePoint at present is broadly driving the shift to electric mobility, operating in the global EV charging infrastructure market, valued at US$65.3 Bn, with a 10-year CAGR of 31.8%. As seen in Figure 1.0, this market is composed of several critical components, starting with the procurement of raw materials and manufacturing of charging stations, to distribution and sale to business customers/hosts, and ultimately used by the end users which are the EV drivers.
Figure 1.0: Value Chain Analysis
ChargePoint operates as a pivotal point in the EV charging infrastructure value chain, responsible for manufacturing, distributing and installing ports for Hosts (the charging station operators, known as “CPO”). ChargePoint does not own or operate EV charging assets, or monetize drivers, and does not rely upon the sale of electricity – instead it pursues a capital light model, where the charging station operator, or the “CPO” deploys its capital to purchase, install and manage the station, owns and operates it, and depends on the profit on the sale of electricity for return on capital deployed. It primarily generates revenue through the sale of its networked charging hardware, combined with cloud-services (titled “ChargePoint As A Service” or “CPaaS”), which include station and host management capabilities, driver management tools, host pricing, etc. Partial revenue is generated through sale of extended parts and labor warranty to its customers.
Despite this, ChargePoint is under immense pressure. After going public via a SPAC merger in 2021, the company’s share price has fallen over 80%, and it ended fiscal 2023 with a net loss of $457.6 million. Investors are increasingly skeptical of its capital efficiency, and recent leadership turnover has further eroded confidence.
The challenge is structural. As a public company, ChargePoint faces conflicting imperatives: scale infrastructure quickly while delivering near-term earnings improvement. However, EV charging is an infrastructure business with long payback cycles and regulatory dependencies. Without deep-pocketed backing and guaranteed site access, ChargePoint risks falling behind better-capitalized players.
Learning from Shell: A Case Study in Aggressive Electrification
Shell’s moves in the EV charging space offer a compelling case-study. Since 2017, Shell has performed a series of prudent acquisitions to gain market share within the EV infrasturcure space: NewMotion (2017) – a European leader in home and workplace charging (Level 2), Uitricity (2021) – focused on curbside lamp-post charging in urban areas and Volta (2023), a US public charging network with media and retail integration.
Shell now operates over 140,000 charge points globally and is targeting 500,000 by 2025. The company has transitioned their gas stations as a multi-energy retail hub, with pilot locations in Europe now operating as EV-only charging stations. This case study has some key lessons. Firstly, speed to market requires acquisition. Shell recognized that building a charging footprint organically, would be too slow to match market demand and address government pressures. M&A provided acceleration. Second, integration creates stickiness. These acquisitions have enabled Shell to start tying these charging offerings to loyalty programs, fleet services and retail. This keeps customers inside its ecosystem and enables them to differentiates against traditional, oil and gas pure play businesses.
Shell moves are strategic. By controlling the customer interface in the EV era, Shell ensures it continues to play a central role in how energy is consumed on the move. For BP, a O&G player still struggling to establish meaningful presence in North America’s EV charging market, acquisition may prove as the most viable path forward to compete and tackle the threat of obsolescence.
From Opportunity to Action: Why BP Should Acquire ChargePoint
BP is recommended to acquire ChargePoint to establish itself as a market leader in North America’s fast-growing EV charging ecosystem. The acquisition would unlock immediate geographic scale, plug a critical gap in BP’s mobility strategy, and accelerate its energy transition goals through a high-value platform asset. For ChargePoint, the deal would provide financial stability, long-term growth capacity, and a parent company with the infrastructure and capital to support its mission.
This is a logical step forward. BP currently lacks a scaled charging network in North America’s urban and commercial segments, the exact space where ChargePoint has built dominant market share. ChargePoint’s 30,000+ U.S. locations, enterprise partnerships, and cloud-based software platform complement BP’s real estate footprint and global electrification roadmap. Together, the two companies could create a vertically integrated suite of solutions with BP supplying capital and energy, and ChargePoint providing digital services, network density, customer access and charging infrastructure.
For BP, the acquisition would represent a bold but measured investment in long-term relevance. EV charging is a capital-intensive infrastructure business with long payback periods, a poor fit for short-term public companies, but a natural fit for diversified energy giants with strong cash flows and infrastructure experience. With upstream earnings still robust, BP is well-positioned to deploy cash toward transition assets that will generate value over decades. By bringing ChargePoint in-house, BP can expand faster, bundle services, and directly own the customer relationship in a future where energy and mobility converge.
The deal also makes sense for ChargePoint. Despite its market leadership, ChargePoint has struggled as a public company. Its share price has dropped more than 80% since its SPAC listing in 2021, and the company reported a $457.6 million net loss in its most recent fiscal year. Public market investors are increasingly skeptical of the company’s ability to scale profitably in a competitive, capital-hungry environment. Meanwhile, rising interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty have only increased the cost of capital.
Currently, around 60% of ChargePoint’s shares are held by public institutional and retail investors, shareholders who are likely to support a take-private transaction at a modest premium over today’s depressed trading price. For these investors, an acquisition would offer a timely exit and de-risked return. A strategic buyer like BP could position the deal as both a value recovery opportunity and a long-term growth story. Ultimately, the BP and ChargePoint combination offers a rare strategic alignment: a struggling public company with high infrastructure potential, and a global energy major in need of immediate scale, customer proximity, and digital integration in the EV charging space.
Connecting the Dots: From Vision to Deployment
To execute the acquisition, BP should initiate a take-private transaction, offering a premium of 20–30% over ChargePoint’s average 30-day trading price. This would bring the deal value to between $366M and $400M, a manageable investment given BP’s 2023 free cash flow of over $15 billion. The transaction should be structured as an all-cash deal to increase appeal among public shareholders and accelerate execution. With over 60% of ChargePoint’s shares held by institutional and retail public investors, including like BlackRock and Vanguard, the company is well-positioned for a shareholder-friendly exit. BP can finance the deal using its existing balance sheet and transition capital, which is earmarked within its $8 billion capex strategy (until 2030). Additional flexibility may be gained through the issuance of green corporate bonds, aligning the acquisition with ESG investment mandates.
Following the acquisition, ChargePoint should remain operationally independent under the BP Pulse brand umbrella. Its existing executive leadership and product roadmap should be preserved, ensuring continuity and maintaining the company’s position as a trusted, network provider. The ChargePoint brand, especially strong in North America among EV drivers, fleets, and commercial property partners, should not be phased out. Rather, BP should allow the brand to thrive under its broader strategy, avoiding the risks of brand dilution and customer churn that could result from a premature rebranding effort.
The integration should begin with a rollout of ChargePoint’s fast-charging infrastructure across BP’s U.S. assets. The initial focus should be on the 280 TravelCenters of America highway locations acquired in 2023, followed by select Arco-branded stations—a BP owned subsidiary currently only targeting ICE consumers—high-EV-penetration states like California, Texas, and Illinois. These regions not only represent the largest EV user bases in the U.S., but also face charging infrastructure gaps that BP is uniquely positioned to fill. Chargers should be co-located with food, retail, and rest service offerings to extend dwell time and increase non-charging monetization. Where possible, BP should leverage federal funding support from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program to subsidize equipment costs and accelerate buildout.
On the software and services front, BP should work to consolidate its existing BP Pulse digital infrastructure with ChargePoint’s platform. This integration would create a global software layer capable of managing charger networks, dynamic pricing, energy load balancing, and fleet routing. It should also be linked to BPMe, BP’s digital loyalty and fuel management app to allow EV drivers to locate charging stations, redeem offers, earn rewards, and access tiered services. Over time, BP can extend this platform to introduce fleet subscription models, bundled services for commercial site hosts, and green energy-linked offerings such as renewable energy credits and time-of-use optimization.
BP has made its intention to lead in mobility and low-carbon energy clear via numerous historic acquisitions in the space and but execution in North America has lagged behind its ambition. ChargePoint presents a timely, scalable, and digitally integrated asset that can bridge that gap. The acquisition would give BP the infrastructure, software, and market access it needs to compete in the electrified future, while offering ChargePoint the financial stability, capital efficiency, and real estate leverage it lacks today.
In a capital-intensive, high-barrier industry where speed and scale are essential, BP cannot afford to build its way to leadership. By acquiring ChargePoint, it can plug directly into the future of transportation.
