The same year that Karl Benz engineered what must rank among the most momentous human technological achievements, a gentleman called Sylvanus Bowser invented the first petrol pump in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Admittedly, a less celebrated breakthrough, but significant nonetheless.
By 1908, there were around 290,000 automobiles on the road worldwide, but the introduction of Ford Motor Company’s Model T – affordable and mass produced – heralded the age of private motoring.
And yet, it was another five years before the Gulf Refining Co (eventually part of Chevron Corp) opened the first dedicated drive-up service station in the US. Shortly afterwards, Standard Oil of California opened a chain of 34 homogeneous stations along the West Coast, effectively sounding the death knell for the outmoded filling stations that had operated since 1905, little more than gravity-fed pumps located by the kerbside.
In 1920, the US had 15,000 ‘gas stations’, including the kerbside variants, but by 1930, the number had grown to 100,000 and kerbside pumps had all but vanished. The number peaked at around 200,000 in 1970, but now stands at 114,153, according to the US Census Bureau. Numbers have contracted simply because we no longer visit petrol stations to get our oil changed, a battery fitted, or for other forms of routine maintenance.
We can see that the relatively slow development of refuelling infrastructure in the early days of private motoring suddenly gave way to an accelerated roll-out of dedicated networks – but does this tell us anything about the ongoing development of charging infrastructure to meet the requirements of pure electric (EV) or hybrid vehicles? Are we approaching a tipping point?
These questions came to mind on news that BP (BP.) had acquired Chargemaster – the UK’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charger network – for £130m. The oil major will begin installation of Chargemaster points across some of its 1,200 forecourts within the next 12 months, although the eventual timeframe has yet to be revealed. The scale of the undertaking is certainly relevant, given that BP operates one-in-seven petrol stations located in the UK. One of the constant criticisms levelled at EV motoring relates to the practicality (ie, speed) of recharging, but the new charging points will incorporate 150kW rapid chargers, capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes.
The deal came a few months after Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) revealed that it had complemented the planned roll-out of EV charging points at its own forecourts, through a deal to acquire NewMotion, a Netherlands-based owner of one of Europe’s largest EV charging networks, providing access to 70,000 EV charging points across the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, the UK and Norway.
Shell reckons a quarter of the world’s car fleet will be electric by 2040, the point at which the UK government’s ban on non-hybrid petrol and diesel vehicles comes into force. Obviously, estimates vary considerably on this front, but figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance indicate that sales of EVs will increase from a record 1.1m worldwide in 2017, to 11m units in 2025, before surging to 30m in 2030 – with the exponential growth driven primarily by simple benefits-of-scale, essentially the economic dynamic that spurred the Model-T.
