Petrol stations keep piling into charging markets

From the newsletter

Petro Ivoire, one of Ivory Coast’s leading oil companies, has established 17 electric vehicle charging stations with 25 charging points. Last week, the company launched the country’s largest charging station with three 60 kW fast chargers and ten 22 kW slow chargers. The solar-powered site has batteries that can store up to 620 kWh of charge.  

• Oil companies in Africa are increasingly investing in charging stations as the transition to EVs accelerates. Petro Ivoire is establishing charging stations at its existing network of fuel stations scattered across Ivory Coast. 

• National oil companies like Petro Ivoire and multinationals like Shell, BP and TotalEnergies will play a key role in making EV charging widely available. They have the necessary capital and real estate. 

More details

• Petro Ivoire is the third largest oil company in Ivory Coast with a 12% market share, and the leader in the LPG segment with a 32% share. The company operates a network of more than 90 service stations across the country, which it is utilizing to establish EV charging stations nationwide.  

• Petro Ivoire’s foray into EV charging comes as oil multinationals like Shell, TotalEnergies and BP are investing heavily to establish charging points in key markets in Africa. This comes from the recognition that fuel vehicles, which are their core business, will eventually face strong competition from EVs.  

• While the penetration of EVs in Ivory Coast is still low, EV sales are growing rapidly. The country imported a total of 873 EVs between 2017 and 2021 mainly from China, according to a report from ScienceDirect. The total number of registered vehicles in the country was 1,554,000 in the same period. 

• The increase in the number of EVs is gradually increasing demand for charging services. In 2022, Auto24 opened the country’s first public charging station in the capital Abidjan. Since then, new entrants have established a number of charging stations targeting major cities including Yamoussoukro and Grand-Bassam, which have a growing EV user population. 

• One of Ivory Coast’s top charging startups EV.Tech raised €6.4 million in a Series A funding round in 2023. The funding, secured from both national and international investors, was earmarked for the deployment of EV charging stations in Abidjan and across the country. Other top charging services providers in the country include CIE Charge, Green Power Africa, Bollore Group, Energif and TotalEnergies. 

• With a population of 31 million and a rapidly growing economy, Ivory Coast is expected to see a major growth in EV sales in the coming years. This has attracted major EV firms such as China’s BYD, which launched in the country in 2024 through its local partner Loxea, a subsidiary of CFAO Mobility. Increased pressure will cause more oil companies other than Petro Ivoire to enter the charging business to offset potential revenue losses. 

Our take

• Oil companies offer Ivory Coast an opportunity to scale up nationwide charging infrastructure by leveraging thousands of service stations as strategic hubs, prioritizing intercity highways and urban centers like Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, and Grand-Bassam to reduce range anxiety and stimulate EV adoption.

• The Ivorian government should develop clear national EV charging regulations and incentives, including tariff structures, licensing frameworks, and duty exemptions for charging equipment to de-risk investment and create a predictable market for both domestic and foreign players.

• Public-private partnerships between oil firms, government agencies, and international donors will be pivotal for expansion of charging infrastructure in Ivory Coast. These partners could co-invest in EV infrastructure, standardise equipment, and ensure grid readiness, especially in integrating solar-plus-storage models like Petro Ivoire’s flagship station.