Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Demise of the Car

It's often been mentioned that electrification will need to replace liquid fuels to reduce carbon emissions at levels desired, but this is the strongest piece I've seen suggesting the limits on liquid fuels are already fueling the decline of the car.

The Demise of the Car | Peak Prosperity:
In the same way that Western economies have shed enormous tranches of oil demand so that emerging markets could increase their oil consumption, automobile transport is now either stagnating or in outright decline outside of China. You cannot have a growing automobile industry in the United States when American oil demand is down over 12% since 2005. And you cannot have a growing auto industry in Europe when EU oil demand has shed over a million and half barrels a day – another 10% decline.
Europe’s declining oil demand is particularly significant, given that coming into the last decade, the EU was already a highly efficient user of oil. To have taken off even more demand in the past 5 years shows just how tough high oil prices have become in Europe. The result is nothing less than a devastation of Europe’s auto industry, which has already lost 800,000 jobs and looks ready to lose another 500,000 more according to recent forecasts, as reported by Bloomberg.
Continue reading at Peak Prosperity:

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