Global petrol demand has peaked After fuelling the 20th century car culture that reshaped cities and defined modern life, petrol has had its day. The International Energy Agency forecasts that global petrol consumption has all but peaked as more efficient cars and the advent of electric vehicles from new players such as Tesla Motors halt demand growth in the next 25 years. That shift will have profound consequences for the oil-refining industry because petrol accounts for one in four barrels consumed worldwide. “Electric cars are happening,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in an interview in London, adding that their number will rise from little more than a million last year to more than 150m by 2040. Petrol has been the world’s choice to power cars. From the 1950s onward, when Henry Ford’s dream that every middle-class American could own a car became reality, filling stations sprung up next to drive-through restaurants and strip malls and transformed the landscape of America and economies across the globe. Now, however, car companies — most obviously Tesla, but also incumbents such as General Motors, BMW and Nissan — are putting their money, and reputations, behind electric vehicles. With technology improving — especially for batteries — prices are falling. Tax breaks, particularly in China, are helping sales. Maybe soon we'll see electric car charging stations springing up next to restaurants, coffee shops, motels, etc. No need for them to store flammable liquids at all, and most of them already have an electricity source readily available.... See http://ift.tt/2f2UjSh
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