According to Darren Woods, Exxon Mobil Corp’s CEO, the corporation expects all new passenger cars sold worldwide will be electric by 2040.
Investment bank UBS also forecasts that nearly every new car sold worldwide will be an electric vehicle by 2040. Its other predictions include 20% by 2025 and 40% by 2030.
The predictions are possible. According to Canalys, a market research firm, only 9% of all passenger car sales in 2021 were electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. However, that’s still a 119% increase from 2020. Furthermore, many industry experts say the tipping point at which electric vehicle sales start to swiftly outpace gasoline and diesel vehicle sales has already been reached.
Already, many automobile companies have announced goals for a complete electric portfolio transition. Jaguar said it will solely sell electric vehicles by 2025, Lotus by 2028, Volvo by 2030, Ford by 2030 (in Europe), and General Motors by 2035. In addition, numerous countries have plans to phase out the sale of gasoline and diesel cars.
Exxon Mobil Will Survive
Exxon Mobil is the largest refiner and distributor of petroleum products. Yet, Woods was unfazed while presenting the prediction to CNBC news. He said that:
“[This] change will not make or break this business or this industry, quite frankly.”
He said that chemicals would be crucial to the company’s profitability as it navigates the clean energy transition. For example, it can rely on providing polymers needed to make electric vehicle parts. Thus, Exxon Mobil’s anticipated 2040 oil consumption will equal 2013 or 2014 levels, which were still lucrative years.
The Leading Electric Vehicle Companies
Transportation is one of the least environmentally friendly industries, but technology firms are working diligently to change that. In fact, we’re in the midst of the most significant automotive revolution since Henry Ford’s 1913 debut, and it’ll happen faster than you think.
The current market leader, Tesla Inc., has prevailed in initiating a worldwide movement toward electrification. In addition, other automakers with long histories of success, such as General Motors, Ford, GMC, Volvo, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz, BMW, as well as newer up-and-coming brands like Rivian, Lucid, Waymo, Arrival, and Nio, are putting aside billions of dollars and accelerating their plans to transition to electric car production.
The History and Rise of Electric Vehicle Companies
Electric car technology has been around for far longer than you would imagine. The first electric vehicles date back more than a century. The first workable electric vehicle was produced in the 1870s. However, electric carriage and railway prototypes date back to the 1830s!
Early in the 1900s, electric vehicles were popular, but gas-powered automobiles became more economical and readily available. But in the last 20 years, electric vehicles have reentered the public consciousness, and the sector has flourished because consumers worry about the environmental effects of gas and diesel engines.
The tally of electric cars on the road climbed from 17,000 to 7.2 million between 2010 and 2019. This ascent is expected to spike because studies show electric car ownership should cost about the same as petrol cars as of this year.
Electric vehicles have gone from a niche premium product to the industry norm and, soon, the dominant mode of transportation. They include sports cars, SUVs, freight trucks, motorcycles, and other models designed to make travel safer, quicker, easier, and more environmentally friendly.
The most important thing today is sustainability and tackling climate change. Electric vehicles are part of the solution for many reasons, including that they produce hundreds of times less waste.
