In 2022, the European Parliament’s environmental committee voted (340 votes to 279) to ban the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles in the European Union from 2035. Well, that was before Germany, Poland and Bulgaria do not veto.
Despite everything, some manufacturers have decided to anticipate the end of thermal vehicles. This is particularly the case for TotalEnergies. The French, whose net profit was 19.1 billion euros in 2022, will share or sell some 2,209 service stations in Europe.
The main beneficiary of this agreement is the Canadian Couche-Tard, which specializes in the sale of food and petroleum products. Although unknown to the French public, Couche-had been talked about in 2021 by starting discussions to buy the Carrefour group, France’s leading private employer. It was without counting the veto of Bercy, which brandished a risk for “food sovereignty“French, said the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire. (source LSA Conso)
A priori, oil does not pose a problem of sovereignty, since TotalEnergies will yield to the Canadian 1198 service stations located in Germany and 392 in the Netherlands, that is to say the entirety of its network in these two countries. The French justifies his decision by the fact that he is not there “market leader“.
For Belgium and Luxembourg, where TotalEnergies is the leader, a joint venture will be set up (Couche-Tard 60% and TotalEnergies 40%) to operate the 619 service stations.
Despite everything, these four networks will remain under the banner of TotalEnergies “as long as they continue to be supplied with fuel by the company“, i.e. until 2028. This type of operation is not a first, since since 2015, TotalEnergies has sold its networks of service stations in Italy, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
The objective of the French tanker is to “reduce its sales of petroleum products by 30% by 2030 so as not to sell or refine more fuels than it produces petroleum“. However, the company will retain “its fuel wholesale activities as well as the network of AS24 stations for heavy goods vehicles“. In addition to these activities, there is the distribution of hydrogen in partnership with Air Liquide, one of the world leaders. There is talk of setting up a “European network of hydrogen stations for heavy goods vehicles“.
As a good energy company, TotalEnergies will develop “offensively” in new forms of mobility with an emphasis on the installation and management of electric charging stations in major European cities and on motorways.
In October 2021, TotalEnergies announced that it wanted to invest 200 million euros to equip its motorway service stations with fast charging stations (DC). The energy company was targeting – for France – 150 stations by the end of 2022, then 200 stations with terminals of up to 300 kW. The strategy was to offer “its customers a high-power charging station every 150 kilometers“.