Tesla’s planned slowdown in the buildout of its already robust Supercharger Network has found a potential buyer in BP, which is reportedly planning to snap up real estate and talent related to the EV leader’s business plan.
BP CEO Sujay Sharma said the company “is aggressively looking to acquire real estate to scale our network, which is a heightened focus following the recent Tesla announcement.” Bloomberg first reported the news.
Last week, we reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had let go of several key members of its Supercharger team, along with a sizable number of lower-level employees who worked on the program.
Musk explained that Tesla was planning to slow down its buildout of new Supercharger stations and expand on existing ones. He also said the company would still build Superchargers, just at a slower rate than before.
This announcement caused some questions to be raised about Tesla and its expansive Supercharger presence in the U.S., especially as a large group of automakers that includes Ford, Rivian, General Motors, Hyundai, Polestar, and several others committed to adopting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS).
These automakers also are gaining access to 12,000 Tesla Supercharger locations in North America. Ford was the first to gain access in March.
Now, the charging stations are set to be grabbed by rival companies who are looking to expand their own EV infrastructure. BP is one of them, a company that put $1 billion on the line last year when it announced it would work to expand its EV charging footprint.
As Musk has effectively paused any new Supercharger projects, there are numerous portions of land suitable for EV chargers that are now in limbo between waiting for Tesla to relaunch charging construction and potentially embracing new projects from other companies.
BP seems keen on grabbing land that Tesla found suitable. Sharma is making no mistake, he wants to be contacted so BP can build more chargers.
“If there are stranded real estate partners who are looking for someone to call, they should feel free to pick up the phone and call me or look me up on LinkedIn,” he said on LinkedIn, according to the report.
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