EV Raptor: Well, Would Ya?

[bvlaw]

EVs are not the reason prices dropped, it was the rise in fracking. Fracking has been around for along time, but it was never done because the cost of production meant it wasn't profitable given market oil prices. When oil prices rose, mostly due to ME prices, it suddenly became profitable to frack. And of course, once we started fracking, we improved the process and made it cheaper to frack to the point it could compete with normal drilling even as oil prices decreased. It's why the US is now a net exporter of oil.

US Oil companies are still making money easily these days despite lower prices. Why, because they have leverage with foreign oil they never had before. Foreign oil has some competition now.

And I don't think oil companies are really concerned about EVs. They are only concerned to the extent that they get a decent return on their investments in oil, which they will. They'll be happy to switch to other forms of energy when it becomes profitable to do so. Money is the goal.

Also worth point out that oil is not just about energy, but plastics as well. If oil for energy goes away, then it stands to reason there will be significantly less drilling and therefore costs of plastics and other oil based products are going to go up. Which might mean the demands for metals and wood might go up...which isn't exactly great for the environment.

You make some excellent points about fracking. However, the oil companies were charging $4.00/gallon because we had no alternatives and they could get away with it, not because their own costs had increased. If the oil companies' costs in obtaining oil from the middle east were comparatively high, they wouldn't have been posting record profits. The increasing interest in EVs, in my opinion, have kept the oil industry in check in terms of how high they can price their product. Do you remember how pissed off the public was when people were paying huge money at the pump and then the oil companies all posted record profits? The public is starting to have alternatives in the way of EVs.