TotalEnergies has announced through the press its decision to sell the operation of several hundred service stations to the Canadian food and fuel distribution group, Couche-Tard.
TotalEnergies announces that it has sold 1,600 service stations to the Canadian group Couche-Tard for a sum of around 3.1 billion €. Through this transaction, the former French Petroleum Company offloads a large part of its activity in Germany and the Netherlands. That said, the company does not part with all its gas pumps on the Old Continent. TotalEnergies and Couche-Tard will operate the Luxembourg and Belgian stations as a joint venture.
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Even if Total retains its service stations on French soil, the announcement is nonetheless a shock. After all, the oil giant announces that it is parting with a substantial part of its livelihood. We think that TotalEnergies has approximately 16,000 service stations in the world: it has therefore just sold 22.5% of its business. This operation is obviously not the result of chance. Thermal cars will become increasingly rare on European roads, and should completely disappear by 2035.
TotalEnergies sells its service stations to begin its transition to all-electric
In the press release announcing the transaction, TotalEnergies states that the European Parliament’s decision to ban the sale of thermal vehicles from 2035 “incites decisions to be taken regarding the future of its networks in Europe, which will be faced with a loss of fuel-related revenues, while electric vehicles will mostly charge at home or at work and less in resorts”.
It must be said that TotalEnergies has already begun its transformation into a multi-energy company. In two years, it has already installed more than 150,000 electric charging stations on the Old Continent, including 20,000 in France. Note that the change of ownership will not be apparent to motorists. Service stations will remain under the TotalEnergies brand for at least five years. After this time, it will be time to assess the situation. Indeed, it may well be that Germany will derail the European decision to switch to all-electric. This would be an economic disaster for TotalEnergies.
Source: Clean Automobile