Former BP boss Bob Dudley says Looney’s shock exit ‘came out of nowhere’
Bernard Looney gestures as he addresses the gathering on the second day of the three-day B20 Summit in New Delhi on August 26, 2023.
Arun Sankar | Afp | Getty Images
Former BP CEO Bob Dudley on Tuesday said that Bernard Looney’s abrupt resignation last month came as a shock and denied any prior knowledge of the latter’s past personal relationships with colleagues.
Dudley, who worked at BP for 40 years and led the company as CEO for nearly a decade, said the British energy major would soon find a suitable successor and that Looney’s departure would likely not impact the firm’s strategy. Looney succeeded Dudley, who stood down as BP CEO in 2020.
Looney resigned with immediate effect on Sept. 12 after less than four years on the job. He informed the company that he was not “fully transparent in his previous disclosures” about relationships with colleagues prior to becoming CEO, BP said.
Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Looney had promoted women with whom he had undisclosed past relationships, adding that his relevant romantic relationships with BP colleagues took place before his promotion to CEO. CNBC was unable to independently verify the reports.
“It’s a shock to the organization. It came out of nowhere, and I think that the company has great assets, great people,” Dudley told CNBC at the Abu Dhabi International Progressive Energy Congress oil and gas conference on Tuesday.
“It is not about one person, and it won’t be long before there will be replacements in there, and the company will do fine, because it is a really strong company with a wide spectrum to its portfolio,” he added.
Asked whether there was a valid accusation that he might have known more about the situation, given his time mentoring Looney, Dudley replied, “I didn’t know anything about it and neither did the deputy CEO and others and the board. Should have I known? I don’t know. Maybe I was a bit naïve, but I had no clue. No clue at all.”
‘Things at BP are OK’
Looney’s surprise departure has raised questions about the outlook for BP, although current and former executives have insisted that the firm’s medium and longer-term strategy remains the same.
“Things at BP are OK. We move forward as you would expect, despite the change that happens,” interim BP CEO Murray Auchincloss said Monday during a CNBC-moderated ADIPEC panel session.
Auchincloss said the company remains “firmly committed” to the outlook it laid out earlier in the year, emphasizing that “the strategy is not an embodiment of a single individual, it is the embodiment of a management team and a board.”
Murray Auchincloss, interim chief executive officer of BP Plc, speaks during a panel session at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“Look, we laid out an update to the strategy in February, seven months ago, that’s a strategy that’s endorsed by the management team, endorsed by the board. One person leaving does not change the strategy,” Auchincloss said.
“It’s focused on providing energy today as cleanly as we possibly can,” he added. “On the transition growth engine, it’s unchanged. We have five of them. We in particular like biofuels, both sustainable aviation fuel and biogas.”
Dudley — who now chairs the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, an organization backed by BP, Saudi Aramco, Exxon Mobil and other Big Oil firms — echoed Auchincloss’ view. He said BP’s strategy would likely remain “business as usual.”
“It was a very aggressive strategy, and I think the world changed when Russia invaded Ukraine. The need for security of supply changed everybody’s views on this,” Dudley said, when asked whether Looney is on the right track, particularly regarding decarbonization.
“Before, it was clean, affordable energy, which meant reducing carbon however you could. After the invasion, look at Europe’s energy flows, no pipelines of gas essentially and shortages around the world,” he added. “You can’t run a big energy company and ignore the facts of the world, so he backed off to a degree on that and to me that made a lot of sense.”
Shares of London-listed BP are up 9.5% year-to-date.
— CNBC’s Jesse Pound contributes to this report.
Packing up to 852 hp and a cutting-edge technology stack developed by Huawei, Chinese luxury brand Maextro just revealed its latest entry into the Mercedes-Maybach EQS and Rolls-Royce Spectre segment of ultra-luxe EVs. Meet the all-new Maextro S800.
Despite a somewhat steady stream of new Chinese EVs that defy expectations and threaten to re-set the global order of performance cars, semi trucks, and just about everything in between, brands like Maybach, Rolls-Royce, and even Bentley have seemed relatively “safe,” in the sense that their value is based on something a bit less objective than lap times or kW/mile.
The new Huawei Maextro S800, first shown as a series of renderings late last year, seems to have found some of Henry Rolls’ secret sauce – and they’ve sprinkled it liberally all over the S800.
Huawei sparkles – literally
The shimmering, sparkly, fiber-optic headliner was pioneered by Rolls-Royce over a decade ago, pushing back against the more open and accessible glass-roofs that were becoming popular in the higher end market. Huawei goes a step further, adding similar, Swarovski-like shimmer to not just the headliner – but the door handles, the headlights, projections dancing around the car as you approach it in the street.
It looks and feels special, in other words. And these cars are all about making their owners feel special. Different.
When Henry Rolls began work on his first US factory in Springfield, Massachusetts way back in 1919, there was supposedly a mantra that management repeated to the workers. It went, “every time you touch the car, you add cost. Make sure you add value.”
I’m not here to argue that Huawei is living up to the same maxim with the Maextro, but I am here to argue that this car’s bespoke, purpose-built platform doesn’t share any parts with a lesser offering from the Mercedes or BMW or Volkswagen lineup in the way that a Maybach, Rolls-Royce, or Bentley does. That may not mean much to you and me, but the people shopping six- and seven-figure cars, it might.
Those well-heeled buyers will get a choice of EREV or “pure” battery electric powertrains good for between 480 and 852 all-electric horsepower. 32 ADAS sensors including both radar and lidar compliment a suite of cameras analyze the road ahead and feed data to Huawei’s ADS road perception system, which is constantly adjusting torque distribution, suspension compression and rebound, and front and rear steering to deliver a tech-driven chauffeur experience that Huawei insists is second to none.
That digital chauffeur is also pretty handy when the weather goes sideways, too. Huawei says the Maextro’s sensor array can help it to increase the detection distance in rain, fog, and dust by 60% compared to the benchmark, while delay was reduced by 40%.
In the event a collision is unavoidable, the car can adjust its stance, seating position, raise the windows, and unlock the central control lock to enable outside help to open the doors. Following the collision, the Maextro S800 switches the redundant power supply and calls for help, as well.
Finally, reports indicate that the Maextro S800 supports the 800V high-voltage system in some trims, suitable for 6C charging, which means it can be energized with up to 390 kW of charging power, taking just 10.5 minutes to charge the 66 kWh battery in the EREV version (523 hp) from 10% to 80%.
The Maextro S800 will enter the Chinese in May this year with a price range of 1 – 1.5 million yuan (about $135–205,000 US).
Maextro S800 | gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: Maextro, via CarNewsChina.
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Volvo Penta will debut its latest modular and scalable battery energy storage system (BESS) platform for the off-grid construction and mining industries at the bauma equipment show – here’s what you can expect.
Best-known for its marine engines and gensets, Volvo Penta is the power production arm of the Volvo Group, specializing in putting energy to work. Operating under the tagline, ‘Made to Move You’, Volvo Penta is headed to bauma 2025 with a plan to keep construction, port shipping, and mining operations moving productively and competitively throughout their transitions to battery and (in theory, at least) hydrogen power.
To that end, the company will show off a job site ready version of the scalable and modular BESS subsystem concept shown last year.
Volvo says its new, modular BESS subsystem will enable other OEMs and third party system integrators to seamlessly deploy electric power to meet the ever-exceeding energy needs in construction and mining.
“Our modular and scalable battery-electric platform is designed to support the electrification ecosystem—combining high-performance drivelines with the crucial energy storage subsystems for efficient charging and operation in construction and mining,” says Hannes Norrgren, President of Volvo Penta Industrial. “We want to meaningfully collaborate with our customers on value-added customization that will enable them to stay productive, efficient, and future-ready.”
The Penta substation at bauma will be built around the company’s “Cube” battery pack, an energy-dense solution with a favorable C-rate designed to make it easy for BESS manufacturers to offer more compact job site solutions capable of charging and discharging energy with high levels of speed and efficiency, enabling both stationary and mobile BESS configurations that can change and grow to meet the evolving needs of a given asset fleet or project.
A Volvo Penta-developed DC/DC unit converts the voltage from the Cube battery packs (600 V) into lower voltage (24 V) for powering auxiliaries and portable offices.
Electrek’s Take
Volvo Penta has always provided power. Historically that’s been from combustion, but the company is looking ahead, developing products that will bring energy to job sites, tractors, and more long after the last ICE engine shuts down.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Penta.
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Just days after Rivian announced that it would be making its iconic electric delivery vans available to anyone willing to pay for one, the company launched the new Rivian Upfit Program, offering a “one-stop shop” to help fleet managers put its EVs to work.
Launched in partnership with commercial vehicle heavyweights Ranger Design, Sortimo of North America, Bush Specialty Vehicles, Holman, LEGEND, and EV Sportline, the Rivian Upfit Program helps fleet buyers make the switch to electric by simplifying the ordering process and delivering an experience that more closely reflects the experience fleet managers get at dealerships.
Despite partnering with leading brands and launching into a well-establish market, however, the program’s web page seems largely aimed at people outside the space – even kicking off with an explanation of what upfitting is:
Upfitting is the process of customizing a vehicle in order to meet fleet, business, or individual consumer needs to tackle the job at hand. This work is done after the vehicle has been built and released from the factory, and can include everything from shelving modifications, flooring options, to sirens and flashers and much more.
The program was announced on LinkedIn with a number of photos indicating upfit options for Rivian’s R1T and R1S vehicles focused on lifeguard and roadside assistance duty, and Rivian’s van upfit with a HVAC/telecom style toolbox arrangement.
No word on pricing or turnaround time.
Electrek’s Take
The general consensus around the Electrek water cooler is that the direct-to-consumer model offered by Rivian, Tesla, and even CarMax deliver a superior customer experience, I’ve consistently drunk the franchise dealer Kool-Aid, arguing that the industry-leading margins enjoyed by these companies actually indicate they’re giving consumers an objectively worse deal than they’d get in a more competitive dealer landscape.
That same competitiveness has led to talented fleet managers at those franchise dealers putting in the effort to get to know the needs of the businesses and buyers in their regions, to understand what upfit options makes sense for their local markets, and – crucially – what to stock for quick turnaround when their customers need it.
Rivian is hoping its upfit partners will do a lot of that heavy lifting for them, but my two cents is that if building cars is hard, building relationships is harder, and Rivian isn’t going to make a good first impression by talking down to its customers. If you think differently, let me know how I got it wrong in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Rivian, via LinkedIn.
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