Plug-in cars may cause new slump in oil prices, - Bloomberg

In the next two years, electric car industry may cause a new collapse of oil prices.

Censor.NET reports citing Bloomberg.

The agency refers to Tesla and Chevrolet's plan to start selling electric cars with a range of more than 200 miles priced in the $30,000 range. Moreover, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, and BMW are investing billions in their electric car lines. Nearly every major carmaker - as well as Apple and Google - is working on the next generation of plug-in cars.

As reported, OPEC still contends that electric vehicles will make up just 1 percent of global car sales in 2040. However, the oil price crash that started in 2014 was caused by a glut of unwanted oil, as producers started cranking out about 2 million barrels a day more than the market supported. The question is: How soon could electric vehicles trigger a similar oil glut by reducing demand by the same 2 million barrels?

Bloomberg reminds that even amid low gasoline prices last year, electric car sales jumped 60 percent worldwide. If that level of growth continues, the crash-triggering benchmark of 2 million barrels of reduced demand could come as early as 2023 and not 2040 as oil producers predict.