Electric cars can now ‘fill up’ at selected BHP petrol stations

PETALING JAYA, Feb 14 — Boustead Petroleum Marketing Sdn Bhd (BHPetrol) launched the first of an intended chain of Electric Vehicle (EV) and Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) charging stations, at BHPetrol Kg Sungai Kayu Ara today.

BHPetrol’s managing director Tan Kim Thiam announced that BHPetrol would be adding more charging stations. BHPetrol has a total of 360 stations in the country.
Tan Kim Thiam, BHP managing director (left) and Nicholas Tan, director, Tan Chong Group.

The charging stations are equipped with model Type 2, 3-phase, 22kW Fast Charger.

Charging time takes approximately one hour, and car owners are required to bring their own charging cable. At the moment, there is only one charger in its own dedicated bay, understandably out of the main flow of normal petrol or diesel lanes. At the moment, the service is provided free – Tan expressed his support for this offer of free recharging as he believes that this would create more exposure and enhance the BHPetrol brand.
The EV charging kiosk at BHPetrol.

“We will be providing more BHPetrol service stations with the same service in the future to cater for the demand,” he added.

For this project, BHPetrol is collaborating with First Energy Works Sdn Bhd (FEN), a fully owned subsidiary of Tan Chong Group to provide an EV charging infrastructure and system to power ‘zero emission’ mobility.

Five cars, namely the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, Renault Twizy, Volvo XC90 and BMW i8 were exhibited during the launch.
The Renault Twizy.

The setting up of EV charging stations to support electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars is a typical chicken or egg, what comes first, type of situation. If you do not sell such cars, there will be no recharging stations, and if you do not have recharging stations, you will not sell such cars. We are at a stage in the auto industry that is very similar to that of the early days of the automobile, about a hundred years ago – back then, cars were a rarity, and petrol stations were even more rare. In those early days, owners had to travel great distances to get petrol or they had to stockpile large quantities.
Recharging a BMWi8.

What we are witnessing is the setting up of an infrastructure system that is set to change the face of the automotive industry.
Two Nissan Leaf electric cars are pictured at the BHPetrol station at Kg. Sungai Kayu Ara.