OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), a significant world oil contributor, recently displayed overconfidence in its presence and future influence despite the rise in electric vehicles.
While car companies are looking to produce more electric vehicles, OPEC expects to continue providing oil for the car industry.
OPEC’s members seem entirely ignorant of the world’s sustainability goals, as many of these individuals believe that ‘fewer than one in 16 vehicles’ are going to be powered by resources outside of gas or diesel in 2040. ExxonMobil delivered a similar statement in 2011 countering against plug-in vehicles.
Vladimir Putin better hope that OPEC’s sugarcoated statement turns out to be true, as Russia depends on oil and natural gas for revenue contribution.
But just how accurate could OPEC’s statement be? If OPEC was correct, than 94 percent of the world’s vehicles would remain conventional by 2040. The craze for electric vehicles is not so out-of-touch, despite what OPEC implies.
Just to illustrate, U.S. plug-in vehicle sales extending through July are up seven percent higher than the previous year. Tesla’s Model 3 and a number of electric vehicles from various car companies, both truly electric and regular, are waiting to be released. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is looking to invest in industries outside of petroleum.
If many car companies are set to begin coming out with electric vehicles in order to meet sustainability goals, is it really reasonable to expect such a low amount of electric vehicles by 2040?
Even insurance companies are crying about the threat of climate change, in fact, they have been for years. This week insurers pressured the meeting of the G20 in China to put a stop to fossil fuel subsidies by 2020. Is it really too much to say that maybe OPEC’s vision is a little too far-fetched?
