“Following an agreement signed with G2mobility and its historical shareholders including Bpifrance and Nexans, Total has acquired 100% of the company's capital,” the group said in a statement, without specifying the amount of the transaction.

G2mobility, created in 2009, sells charging stations as well as remote operation and remote-control services for communities and businesses. Last year, it generated a turnover of approximately 6 million euros.

“With more than 25% of the market of the terminals installed by the public authorities, and a turnover in growth of more than 50% last year, G2mobility brings us a new competence to offer more efficient electric charging systems”, said Momar Nguer, General Manager Marketing & Services of Total.

G2mobility believes that by joining Total, it will continue its development in a market that enters “a new era in terms of ambition and capacity,” according to its CEO, Pierre Clasquin.

At the same time, Total and Nexans signed a partnership agreement to allow the oil group to “benefit from the production capacity” of Nexans, which already manufactured the G2mobility terminals.

Distributor of traditional fuels, the French giant has begun to diversify in order to position itself on new mobility, such as natural gas for vehicles (NGV) and electricity.

Last year, its CEO Patrick Pouyanné had said that the group was considering installing charging stations for electric vehicles in some of its service stations in France, to "knit the mesh of the major axes."

About 50 are currently equipped with fast charging stations, says the group on its website.

Eventually, it wants to equip 300 stations in Europe on major roads, which will represent more than a thousand terminals spaced about 150 km to cover France, Germany and Benelux.

But Total is also evolving a lot in the GNV’s field, especially via acquisitions. The group bought last year the Dutch company PitPoint, which has a hundred distribution stations in Europe. The group also took a stake last May of 25% in the US Clean Energy Fuels, also specializing in natural gas.

In this energy source, whose potential is important for buses, coaches and trucks, Total aims to deploy a network of 350 charging stations by 2022, against a hundred last year.