BP Pulse recently announced its plans to erect Gigahub fast charging network in the United States. According to InsideEVs, the Gigahub is intended to assist taxi and ride-hailing fleets in close proximity to airports and other high-traffic areas.
BP Pulse’s President of fleet division, Vic Shao stated:
“More and more ride-hail and taxi fleets are making bold commitments to electrify. To do so successfully, they will need access to reliable EV charging. Our Gigahub network will provide a charging experience that is convenient and cost-optimized to drivers at airports across the country.”
The first BP Pulse Gigahub may receive up to 48 fast chargers over a few years, as per News NCR. It would probably depend on demand, which is expected to reach 6,400 ride-hailing fleets of electric vehicles by 2027.
BP Pulse and Hertz’s partnership
It is worth noting that BP Pulse and Hertz recently launched a partnership for electric vehicle charging in the US.
Hertz is swiftly growing its rental fleet of EVs. In fact, models from General Motors will be added to its fleets in the future, along with Tesla and Polestar models (up to 175,000).
Furthermore, one of Hertz’s locations close to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will house the first BP Pulse Gigahub. It was chosen due to its $2 million California Energy Commission (CEC) grant funding. Notably, the said grant is a component of the Charging Access for Reliable On-Demand Transportation Services initiative of the California Clean Transportation Program.
“The CEC is providing a $2 million grant award to support the proposed project near LAX, and would have bp pulse leading the installation and management of the charging infrastructure, including the use of its proprietary ‘Omega’ charge management software that optimizes the cost of charging.”
According to Hertz Senior Vice President of Operations Initiatives Jeff Nieman, over 25,000 Uber drivers have rented EVs from Hertz.
On the other hand, BP Pulse claims its objective is to hasten the electric vehicle uptake by providing reliable and practical fast charging at high-demand locations. Remarkably, the company plans to add 100,000 chargers to its global network by 2030.
Neither of the partners specifies the number of Gigahubs that will be installed in the US. However, we can infer that there is a good probability that one will be installed in each major airport and city.
Furthermore, there is also no provided data for the power output. Considering that the cars need to be charged and prepared for operation, it may be in the 150-350 kW range.
