The battle to own the road is getting electric, with a surprise entry in the US aiming for the checkered flag, BP. 🏁 Yep, big oil producer BP (BP) has their hands on the wheel, joining in the rapidly growing US EV race. Kind of. The oil and natural gas company, which late last year bought EV fleet charging service Amply, has partnered with Covid-hurt Hertz (HTZ, HTZWW) to add to their BP Pulse network of charging stations across the US. 

It’s been a rocky road for Hertz since pandemic panic kept people at home, and last year, the wheels came off. With the legacy car rental company filing for bankruptcy and being delisted - and subsequently relisted - on the Nasdaq. But since then, they’ve been loading up the boot, announcing they’re adding 340,000 EVs to the Hertz US fleet by the end of this year, including with Polestar (PSNY), GM (GM) and not-yet-tweet-confirmed 100,000 Teslas (TSLA). 🚗 Could the BP Pulse deal, along with their PR positive Tesla Uber rental fleet, help Hertz make up the miles, or will everybody hurt? 

The Hertz deal is part of BP’s drive to becoming net zero by 2050, assuming supercharged storms don’t wash away the world before then. 🌊 BP already provides more than 12,000 charging stations in a UK subscription service, and they’re spreading to Germany, China and The Netherlands. In a move away from oil, this February they dumped their 20% shares in Russian oil refinery company Rosneft. The Hertz announcement didn’t see a BP hefty share price surge the likes of Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Occidental Petroleum’s (OXY) year-to-date hikes however, but they’re still up 8.15% on this time last year.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s continuing to ramp up their EV production, with 343,000 vehicles in 2022’s third quarter - around 100,000 more than the same time last year, but short of analysts’ expectations. Just not yet enough to tweet thanks for Hertz’s order. Tweet tweet. 🐦