The Cars

Trends are transient, constantly being replaced by new trends. Arguably more electric cars existed at the turn of the 20th Century than petrol-powered ones. As it turns out, the oil booms in the 1920s led to a mass adoption of the internal combustion engine, and by the 1990s, no car maker dared more than to just dabble, without considering mass production. But times have changed.

During most of the previous century, the petrol prices were measured in cents per litre, being that the world oil price moved between 12 to 30 dollars a barrel. Speculations and political dramas in the Middle East since 2003 fueled a drastic growth in the oil price, sending shockwaves across nations as it reached the 147-dollar record in 2008. The concurrent recession eventually managed to get demand well below supply, and so within a year the price was returned to a 2003 level. The tranquility wouldn’t last long, however.

Even though it is near impossible to accurate measure the volume of fossil fuel left in the planet, there are always telltale signs to notify us the degree of availability oil companies are facing. The International Energy Agency was founded by the OECD as an authority on world energy reserves, and since their inception they have never publicly acknowledged the concept of peak oil. This all changed in 2010, when they suddenly confirmed the long held rumours that the production of conventional oil peaked in 2006. Note that conventional oil is the affordable crude that makes up 80 percentage of the total world production. In layman’s terms: our cheap oil is no more.

To summarise the IEA report, it is an official confirmation that cheap oil is gone for good. As of early March, 2011, in addition to the Arab world uprisings, the oil price is hovering around 104 dollars a barrel and this price is unlikely to drop substantially. In fact, it tends to be held up by the oil cartel, slightly insulated from drops in demand to maintain profits for OECD members.

Yes, there is such thing as unconventional oil that we can tap into. These include oil shale, tar sand, coal-to-fuel and biomass. However, the production processes behind these sources are so much more energy intensive than conventional oil they are economically unfeasible to replace the production ratio currently held by conventional oil. That is, until the price rises enough to make commercialisation of these resources profitable.

For consumers, they will end up with more choice. Now that every multinational car company: Nissan, Toyota, Ford, BMW, and even supercar manufacturer Porsche to just name a few, have all announced their line-up of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles due to enter the market this decade. This means that if you are planning on saving up for a new car, the rational thing will be to aim for one that will use as little fuel as possible, or if better, none at all. And that applies to anyone looking for a used car as well.

If you’re looking for an electric car for sale you’ll also need vehicle insurance because electric cars can be expensive to repair.