Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Here's a forecast I believe

This is a chart from a chap called Wills, reported in RenewEconomy.  It shows demand for ICEVs (petrol/diesel/gasoline cars and lorries), for EVs and PHEVs (plug in hybrids).  Note that demand for ICEVs doesn't decline in a nice, safe linear trend.  It plunges.  It collapses.  It's a massive disruption. Now, it's possible some die-hards will still be buying ICEVs in 2026 and 2027, but they will be like those people who insist that vinyl is better than digital.  Except governments want to stop air pollution, so . . . .

Source

In the US, a car's average life is 11 or 12 years; globally it's higher (18 to 20) .  But EVs are so vastly superior to ICEVs that only the very poor will keep their old ICEVs as EVs flood the market.  Average life for aging ICEVs is likely to be 10 or 12 years or less, maybe much less, once EVs become the norm.  Which implies (see chart below) that total global oil demand (and CO2 emissions from oil) will start to fall by 5 or 5.5% per annum from 2026 onwards, and that rate of decline will accelerate as the global car and lorry fleet is modernised.  Even by 2024, it will be falling by 2 or 3% per annum.  This will be disastrous for oil companies and for those economies (Russia, Saudi, Kuwait, etc.) which have benefited so much from producing oil.  This has major military/political implications.



Prof Wills has other forecasts, about the peak in gas demand, for example, which I agree with.

Once again, it's truly excellent news for global CO2 emissions and global warming.  But this new technology will create losers, bigly.  Come to think of it, it will impoverish oil and coal billionaires and dry up their funding for reactionary right-wing parties.  Sad!

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