When Bloomberg writes that in the United States “ Big Oil Is About to Lose Control of the Auto Industry ” you know there is something going on, especially when they rely on solid BNEF study and data.
In a nutshell, the US have seen their oil consumption peak in 2004 while supply has ramped up. This alone could explain the recent plunge in oil prices.
But why did oil consumption peaked ? The recession of 2008-12 explains this but not alone. Energy efficiency has increased sharply, with a 29 percent gain in as little as 13 years, from 24.5 MPG to over 31 MPG.
And this is not gonna get any better for Big Oil as the latest cars are just consuming even less fossil fuels. Peugeot plans to sell a car that can get almost 117 MPG as Enerzine published last week.
Hybrids and fuel electric cars are also getting more and more the norm. Full EV global sales were of 288,500 units last year, a five-fold increase since 2011.
And it’s not going stop anytime soon as batteries – and solar – are costing less and less. Bloomberg New Energy Finance notes that : ” The price of lithium-ion batteries that power most electric cars has fallen 60 percent from 2010 and will keep declining at the same pace. “
Others reasons that are not mentioned in the article are the traction gained by both public transportation and biking. And these are good news as this means less traffic congestion, better air quality and so on and so forth.
For more details on the matter, please check Bloomberg’s original article as well as this fascinating study from the US Public Interest Research Group called Transportation in transition.
The times are a’changin’ and it’s getting even more and more interesting (and urgent) to divest from fossil fuels companies.
Image credits : Flickr.
just one day after reading about Shell’s exploration of the Arctic Sea for more dangerous forays into the frigid crust of this fragile Earth–i find this sustainable bit of news about solid gains in renewable energy.
every day i watch enormous pick-ups driven by small women who forgot a single item at the supermarket or simply wanted a slice of pizza from the corner convenience store. cheap gas has not improved local driving habits, but i see hope peeking around the corner of main street and social awareness.