Royal Dutch Shell Sees Electric Transportation Coming, Won’t Be Caught Flatfooted
As we’ve noted a few times over the years here, Royal Dutch Shell seems to be by far the most progressive of the world’s major oil companies. Here’s an article discussing Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden (who recently traded in his clean-diesel car for an EV) and his observation that the world really is moving away from petroleum in favor of electric transportation.
Here are van Beurden’s plans to keep his company profitable, as he deals with the phenomenon that could happen by 2035: “peak oil.” No, this is not the peak oil supply that has been under discussion for the last half century, but peak demand, past which there will be a steady decline in the use of gas and diesel until it disappears altogether.
Craig,
CEO’s of giant publicly listed corporations are really politicians.
Such statement’s are carefully constructed to be interpreted many different ways. Each listener,hears what they want to hear and depending on the bias of the media outlet interpretations will differ widely.
An excellent example of this sort of announcement was earlier this year by the Geely owned car maker, Volvo.
Volvo announced;
“All Volvo models to become electrified from 2019 ” !
This sensation was accompanied by a storm of media and ‘green activists’ proclaiming headlines like :
‘Volvo death knell for petrol cars’
‘Volvo signals end of road for petrol and diesel cars’
‘End of the road for fossil fuel as Volvo goes all-electric’.
Along with a myriad of other headlines all trumpeting the same sensationalist message.
Great PR for Volvo if accurate.
Except it wasn’t really !
Volvo’s “electrification” will be mostly a type of mild hybrid or simply a 48-volt battery instead of 12.
No ‘breakthrough’ technology, but a real ‘breakthrough’ in “green washing” PR,
A little cynicism is useful when reading media reports. Too much is counter-productive, but too little is equally foolish. Best seen through clear a lens, neither rose tinted nor too dark.