Oil manufacturers have voiced concerns that current fuel prices could speed up the world’s transition to electric vehicles.
The inflation of petrol prices amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked fear within oil producers, because they believe it could encourage people to buy electric vehicles.
It just breaks your heart doesn’t it. A bunch of the richest people in the world, collectively fearing that they might be slightly less disgustingly rich in a few years.
Speaking to the New York Times, Iraq’s oil minister, Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, said that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are concerned that high petrol prices could cause the world to become less dependant on oil.
He said that the current circumstances mean that business is booming in the short-term, but before long he expects that electric vehicles will dramatically increase in popularity.
But oil companies are notorious for ramping petrol prices up much higher than they need to be, so they only really have themselves to blame.
There’s a domino effect caused by the inflation too, for example Uber prices have increased by more than 100% in some places because running costs are increasing per trip.
UK car marketplace Auto Trader has already seen an increase in users searching for electric vehicles, with EVs making up more than one in five ad clicks since petrol prices began to spike.
There’s also currently a wave in the United States that has seen school buses switch from petrol engines to electricity to cut costs and limit environmental harm.
Start-up companies are offering affordable rates to rent fleets of buses to transport organisers, which has proven to be an effective alternative.
But yeah, we totally feel bad for the oil companies.
