The year 2006 saw the release of a documentary that outlined the precarious state of electric cars at that time. The main character in the film was a little electric car called the EV-1 built by GM between 1996 and 1999. Despite being one of the first major forays into the world of electric vehicle technology, it was refined enough to exhibit some of electricity's best qualities when it came to delivering around-town performance. Despite a little over a thousand successful leases, General Motors killed it off unceremoniously.

That was then. Here we are now over a decade after the release of the movie and the landscape couldn't be more different. Every automaker is dumping piles of money into electric vehicle technology and, sensing a changing of the tides, oil companies are beginning to panic. As Reuters reports, British Petroleum has opened a line of communication with EV carmakers in hopes of catching this wave of change in a way that it allows it to continue turning a profit. That ritual credit card swipe at the gas station is where BP and its competitors make money, and it hopes to keep making money by changing only the energy it supplies, doing this by aiming to offer battery recharging docks at its gas stations.

The change is inevitable, as more recent projections predict that demand for fuel could plateau as early as the late 2020s due to EVs despite the fact that car sales are still booming, especially in the thirstier SUV segment. "We have discussions going on with a lot of the EV manufacturers to have a tie-up with our retail network for charging," said BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley. BP is an example of an oil company looking to adapt and installing battery charging stations at gas stations would serve its interests as well as those of the customers looking to better acclimate themselves to EVs and even aid car companies that currently have numerous EV models in the oven being cooked to perfection. Bravo?