THE world's biggest car maker, General Motors, believes the global oil supply has peaked and a switch to electric cars is inevitable.
In a stunning announcement at the opening of the Detroit Motor Show yesterday, GM's chairman and chief executive officer, Rick Wagoner, said ethanol was an important interim solution to the demand for oil, until battery technology gave electric cars the range of petrol-powered cars.
GM is working on an electric car, the Volt — due in showrooms in 2010 — but delays in battery technology have slowed its development.
Mr Wagoner cited US Department of Energy figures that showed the world was using about 1000 barrels of oil every second and demand was likely to increase by 70% in the next 20 years.
"There is no doubt demand for oil is outpacing supply at a rapid pace, and has been for some time now," Mr Wagoner said. "As a business necessity and an obligation to society we need to develop alternate sources of propulsion.
Comments
January 17th, 2008
Conceded, but not embraced
Yep, Toban, exactly.
"Embraces" Im sure is a long way from an accurate description of their current attitudes. They may "concede," but will continue to promote policies that aid their current product line for some time to come.
January 17th, 2008
A little greener
Unfortunately General Motors only suggests that we should respond to oil depletion problems by switching to other fuel sources, and by changing the engines in automobiles. Other car design changes (which might involve producing smaller vehicles) aren’t even mentioned here, and the option of cutting back our automobile usage certainly isn’t brought up, as this response to oil depletion is in line with vested interests in and around General Motors. Cars are their bread and butter. Larger cars are more profitable, and any major design changes would entail research and development, as well as factory retooling and employee retraining; in other words, those design changes would eat into profits.
The announcement is significant, though, given that General Motors has been known as the most anti-environmental car company of them all, so either the bar has moved–and all of the car companies are changing–or General Motors isn’t lagging (as much) any more.