What's going on?

Oil behemoth BP announced on Thursday that it�s buying the UK�s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging company, Chargemaster. Go green or go home.

What does this mean?

BP used to be called British Petroleum for a reason: fossil fuels like oil used to be its entire business. But the world�s changing and BP doesn’t want to be left behind. Although it might seem odd for a major oil company to invest in clean energy (remember when Amazon disrupted its book-selling business by launching the Kindle?), BP wants to power up its position in the car-fueling market � whatever your fuel of choice.

Why should I care?

For markets: Green is the new black.

Investors seem to think BP�s doing something right: its stock rose slightly on the news. Although it�s early doors for EVs (they�re less than 1% of the US car market), they�re expected to get popular, quickly. BP�s paying just $170 million for Chargemaster � peanuts for an oil titan. Getting into EV charging early could help BP avoid going the way of the Walkman and becoming irrelevant. This deal echoes Shell�s 2017 purchase of an EV charging company � both may be in response to mounting pressure on oil companies to fight climate change.

The bigger picture: All roads lead to electric.

While electric cars aren�t common yet, BP�s predicting there�ll be as many as 300 million of them zipping around by 2040 � and all these EV drivers will need somewhere to e-fuel up. BP plans to roll out ultra-fast chargers over the next year, capable of giving 100 miles of juice in just 10 minutes. About half of BP�s profit comes from other things people buy at gas stations, so BP needs to make sure that it keeps those customers rolling in � no matter what they�re driving. All of this will make it much easier for you to own an electric car � if you choose to own a car at all…