I don't think it is really about Oil vs. Electric. We know how that ends, either electric wins outright, or oil runs out and electric wins. The question is whether electric can take over quickly enough to avoid massive climate damage. We have already done significant damage to the environment, but it hasn't reached the point that it will cause populations to collapse. If we keep burning fossil fuels at our current rate, we may put the world into a state where it can only support a few billion people, which means starvation, thirst, and very likely war. Even if we are wrong about the effects on the climate, if we fail to develop electric vehicles and susteinable energy production, gas prices will start to climb, and climb quickly. The effects on our economy and on world politics could be pretty bad, the longer we wait to switch the bulk of our systems off of fossil fuel, the worse it will be.
At first glance, it seems pretty clear that starting work on EVs and sustainable energy right away is in every bodies best interest. But the oil companies have a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on oil, as the prices climb, so do their proffits. As the environment collapses, our needs for fuel will increase, we will need more power to keep our cities livable and produce food and clean water, and the oil companies will make money. As oil runs out, the price will rise, and they will make money.
It isn't really in their best interest to pursue this strategy, their actual value as a company will have decreased, as the value of all industry will decrease. A collapse of the climate means more work for less reward, and while the oil industry has a bigger piece of the pie, the pie is smaller. If instead they took a longer term perspective, they could transition into sustainable energy, and have a similarly percentage of the pie, but the pie could continue to grow.
The question isn't whether oil or electric will win in the end, but whether our electric cars will travel through toxic air to abandoned cities, or through healthy air to bustling centers of culture and commerce.
