Digging Deeper - Plateau not peak: Oil consumption and the future of cars

Oil. It makes the world go round. Literally. Almost all the automobiles, ships, planes and all major machinery, including the generators that chug away for hours to provide electricity in our apartment complexes, run on oil.

Oil prices were careening like crazy in the recent past, and oil producing nations were unwilling to ramp up production by much. Given the unpredictable nature of oil prices, which will pretty much define this decade in retrospect, it comes as a relief to hear that governments around the world are pushing aggressively for adoption of electric vehicles.

In fact, many governments have deadlines to ensure a big chunk of cars sold in the future are electric, not petrol or diesel based.

Does anyone else think Electric Bentleys is a good name for a britpop band? For the record, we will, in point of fact, have electric Bentleys soon. Volvo has also declared that it would only make fully electric or hybrid cars 2019 onwards.

To understand how all these are connected, we need to dig deeper into the global car market and look at the role of oil in the future of transport.