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Comment by 29athrowaway | Hacker News Reader

What do they plan to do? connect an oil based generator to the charging station?

> oil

Shell and others are calling it "deep water energy". This is good PR, nothing more. They aren't going to base their revenue on charging cars; and they get carbon credits to look good.

If you search "BP global warming", the first 7 of 9 results are linked to BP.com about how they're taking action on climate change.

In February of this year, "BP dials back climate pledge amid soaring oil profits. The British oil giant wants to decrease its carbon emissions by between 20 and 30 percent by 2030. It previously aimed for a 35 to 40%." :

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/02/07/bp-climat...

> The British oil giant wants to decrease its carbon emissions by between 20 and 30 percent by 2030. It previously aimed for a 35 to 40%.

The only way they can significantly decrease "their" carbon emissions is by selling less of their product, which would be by lowering their lobbying and switching to another source of revenue.

I could say this is good news, not that I care about bp or tesla chargers, but anything that allows them to pivot to another revenue stream is less petrol they'll sell to be burnt.

But truth be told there is no reason why it would be subtractive when it can be additive. Any pledge they make is meaningless. All will be burnt until there's none, because it doesn't cost remotely as much to produce than it brings to sell.

Says they are installing them at their gas stations. Probably a lot of money to be made from getting people to stop to charge and buy sodas etc.

Yep, imagine an EV version of Buc-ees, replacing 100 gas pumps with superchargers... keeping the Walmart-sized snack-shop:

https://www.mapquest.com/travel/destinations/travel-guide/ti... (see pic, the scale is massive)

Oh, already happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU07U1kxDg0&t=57s (57 sec)

Yeah, buc-ees makes for a great charging stop. Just wish the walk from the chargers wasn't quite so long.

Surprised they don't have a Disneyland-like parking lot tram.

It'd be useful for the one in Leeds, AL. The walk is huge and the temps are usually terrible.

Ok, this is the furthest I've even seen for a charger at a Bucees. It's ~450ft. About a 90 second walk.

This is so American. It's like 200ft from the chargers to the store entrance...

They’re actually nearly useless at non-rural gas stations. There’s no money to be made. Far and away most people on an ev will not stop at a charge station anywhere within a couple hundred kilometers of their home.

There's a lot of people who don't live in homes where they can install a charger.

Yep, they also recently purchased TravelCenters of America, which was a mismanaged chain of large gas stations with a lot of potential.

This combination makes a lot of sense, though they should work on revitalizing some of the brands involved.

Doubtful. It makes sense for oil companies to begin (though realistically continue) investing in alternative energies if they want to survive beyond this century due to the continued decreased cost of alternative fuel/energy sources.

Do they use an oil based generator to power the lights in the convenience store or the payment processors?

They will get the ev credits and they will be able to offset the production of fossil fuel.

BP were actually doing a lot of solar cell research from the early 1970s

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