And EVs are only getting started.
Americans drove more than 3.2 trillion miles in 2016, an all-time high after years of negative or low growth during and after the Global Financial Crisis. Look inside those trillions of miles – and at vehicles sold and the capital financing them – and US road transport is even more complex than we concluded in our analysis in last week’s Sparklines.
Last November, US gasoline consumption hit its all-time high on a trailing 12-month basis. The last time it did so was in September 2007. Vehicle miles travelled hit their pre-crisis peak just a few months later that same year. Rebase both gasoline consumption and miles travelled to September 2007, and we see something intriguing: Vehicle miles travelled are up 6% in a decade…and fuel consumption is exactly the same as it was almost a decade ago.
After years of recovering consumption, gasoline demand growth is now flattening out; by one measure, as Gadfly’s Liam Denning noted earlier this week, it’s already in recession.
The spread between miles travelled and gasoline consumption, which was narrow during the early years of the financial crisis, keeps widening despite much lower pump prices since late 2014. Even if the US car and light truck are older now than they have ever been, some efficiency gains are baked into the fleet.
I did an analysis of EV/PHEV sales and its effect on the oil market here:
http://volewica.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/only-12.html
Look how would it appear if Climate Scientist made claims but failed to substantiate those claims with methodology and data???
This is more Chart Porn from Bloomberg…. the problem I have with these “numbers” is that Bloomberg does not CITE the source of the DATA!!!!!
In my book “propriety data” is BULLSHIT!!
Show me how you got your data and your numbers and you have my respect and attention!
Oh, calm down. Cars, even guzzlers, have been getting significantly more effiecient for years. By the end of 2016, the combined total of Nissan Leafs & Teslas is ~220,000 on US roads.
If one assumes an annual average of 15,000 miles each which is probably on the low side as many Leafs are used as taxis in CA and Tesla owners LOVE to drive, that’s 3.3 bln gasoline-free miles or about 82.5 millions gals saved in one year if assuming it’s displacing a 40 mpg car – which is unlikely.
Lighten up, Louise. Your little ploy of being offended over data sources is perhaps a bit classier than what our dumber deniers throw out, but it’s still pretty transparent and more evidence of your being a denier in camouflage.
I constantly comment on the “chart porn” and bright-sidedness that the wishful thinkers (like nickw) draw from their projections, and rail about statements like “And EVs are only getting started”, but my main concern is that we’re “projecting” and deluding ourselves into doing too little too late to head off CAGW, not that the figures are total BS. If you want some respect and attention here, knock off the sneaky denialism.
PS Still waiting to hear how you acquired your Ferrari Testarossa (white, single mirror). Was it paid for with money earned in the fossil fuel promotion business?