Electric cars pose headaches for the oil industry – by Gillian Steward (Toronto Star – July 11, 2017)

https://www.thestar.com/

Electric cars are having a moment. There are only a few on the road compared to gas guzzlers but recent predictions by reliable sources see battery powered vehicles becoming the rage much sooner than had been expected.

Since these sedans, SUVs, and possibly pickup trucks will be powered by electricity instead of gasoline what will that mean for the regions in Canada that produce oil from which gasoline is made? Less demand for oil means prices stay flat or go down, investment dries up, employment sags, provincial treasuries accrue fewer taxes and royalties.

New technology that people can afford and is useful to them can become common place in a relatively short time. The iPhone is so ubiquitous now we can hardly remember what life was like before we spent most of our time looking at little screens.

Will we be able to adjust to a surge in EV sales quickly enough? In Norway, where all electricity is produced by hydro and the winters require cars with strong, reliable batteries, electric vehicles already account for almost one third of new car sales

On Sunday, Tesla showed off its first battery-powered car priced for middle income buyers rather than the super wealthy. Tesla already has 370,000 pending orders and is planning to produce 20,000 cars a month by December.

For the rest of this article: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/07/11/electric-cars-pose-headaches-for-the-oil-industry-steward.html