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* BP to work with China's Didi
* China is world's biggest market for electric vehicles
* Venture to build about 200 hubs by end of 2020 - spokesman
LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - BP said on Thursday itwould build a network of electric-vehicle charging hubs in Chinawith China’s Didi Chuxing as the British firm bets on theworld’s largest market for such cars to help profits during thetransition from oil to cleaner fuels.
Retail services, such as convenience stores at petrolstations, have become a big revenue generator for oil majorssuch as BP and Royal Dutch Shell with profits oftenoffsetting weakness in oil and gas production.
BP operates a fuels and convenience business across 18countries with more than 18,700 sites. Didi, China's biggestride-hailing company, runs a mobile transportation platform,offering users app-based options including car-sharing.
Didi's platform has 550 million users and more than 600,000EVs run on it in China, BP said.
The venture with BP will develop charging hubs for Didi’sdrivers and the wider public and add convenience stores in thenear future, BP said in a statement.
The venture could build as many as 200 hubs with multiplecharging points by the end of 2020, a BP spokesman said.
BP believes the venture can be scaled up to thousands ofhubs across China to reach a leading market position withunmanned and remotely controlled sites, separate from BP'sroughly 700 retail sites in the country, the spokesman added.
"As the world’s largest EV market, China offersextraordinary opportunities," BP quoted its downstream chief,Tufan Erginbilgic, as saying.
"The lessons we learn here will help us further expand BP'sadvanced mobility business worldwide, helping drive the energytransition and develop solutions for a low-carbon world."
China is the world’s largest EV market, with around 50% ofbattery electric vehicles globally.
In January, BP said it would invest in Chinese start-upPowerShare, which links EV drivers to charging points and helpspower suppliers balance distribution.
With China targeting sales of more than 7 million EVs by2025, the need to manage demand and distribution of power on thegrid, particularly at times of peak demand, will be crucial.
Corporate investors from outside the auto industry arebetting on electric vehicles, vying with automakers andsuppliers to bankroll companies working on everything fromadvanced batteries to charging devices and all-newEVs.
In Europe, BP bought Britain's top EV charging companyChargermaster last year, with the aim of linking the smallerfirm's services with BP petrol stations in thecountry.(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Shadia Nasralla; Editing byDale Hudson)
