Never a better time to own an electric car

[UTMB]

Drone attacks on Saudi refineries are again putting the world oil supply at the top of the headlines today. Depending on the extent of the damage, this could just be a scare, or it could have a big impact on gas prices. Not only could this be the best time to own an electric car, it also could be the worst time to own an ICE SUV. So, will we see a surge in interest in electric cars beyond what we’ve seen? I’m wondering if companies that have bet on Suburbans, Range Rovers and Explorers are regretting it.

 

[UTMB]

And does this bode well for Tesla Semi sales in the future?

 

[Haxster]

It's not so much the damage to these two refineries but the fact that this act of aggression may be an early sign of impending/escalating war(s) in the Middle East. Oil supplies may only be the tip of the iceberg.

It's a good thing that we have an administration led by a "very stable genius" that can negotiate peace in that region.

 

[Uncle Paul]

With all the wars fought, people killed, billions spent and tremendous pollution causing man made global warming, I am surprised to still see posts here saying they are going to buy ANOTHER ICE vehicle due to panel gaps or inconvenience of stopping every 4 hours to charge up on long trips.

People have their priorities in all the wrong places.

Don't buy another gasser...please.

 

[cwerdna]

We'll see. I was traveling for about a week and compared to our expensive (vs. most of the US) gas prices in Nor Cal, gas in Tucson was pretty cheap, below $2.50/gal. I was in the Houston area, and gasoline below $2.20/gal was plentiful. I even stumbled across $2.06/gal gasoline.

In Houston, it's no surprise I saw lots of large pickups and a very large % of inefficient medium to large SUVs. I recall only seeing 1 EV there, a Model S plugged in a Johnson Space Center visitor parking.

Right now, per AAA Gas Prices, the average in TX is $2.268. National average is $2.567. AAA Gas Prices says the CA average is $3.627.

 

[Fossil Fool]

Thanks to fracking etc we now are an oil exporter. Don't look for the end of oil in our lifetime. There's trillions of bucks on the line and a lot of powerful people who will keep the pipelines full.

 

[nwdiver]

We'll see. I was traveling for about a week and compared to our expensive (vs. most of the US) gas prices in Nor Cal, gas in Tucson was pretty cheap, below $2.50/gal. I was in the Houston area, and gasoline below $2.20/gal was plentiful. I even stumbled across $2.06/gal gasoline.

In Houston, it's no surprise I saw lots of large pickups and a very large % of inefficient medium to large SUVs. I recall only seeing 1 EV there, a Model S plugged in a Johnson Space Center visitor parking.

Right now, per AAA Gas Prices, the average in TX is $2.268. National average is $2.567. AAA Gas Prices says the CA average is $3.627.

It's not going to have an overnight effect. Monday will be interesting when the markets open...

 

[UTMB]

It's not so much the damage to these two refineries but the fact that this act of aggression may be an early sign of impending/escalating war(s) in the Middle East. Oil supplies may only be the tip of the iceberg.

It's a good thing that we have an administration led by a "very stable genius" that can negotiate peace in that region.

It is a reminder that for $15,000 and with technical support, people can cause damage at a production bottleneck and impact the global economy. Diesel, gas and jet fuel get more expensive, driving up the overhead for everyone on some level. There will be a cascade of increased costs.



It’s also an ominous sign that someone can deliver a payload to sensitive locations, and even American (I assume) technology couldn’t detect or neutralize it. Think dirty bombs, assassinations.

 

[cwerdna]

It's not going to have an overnight effect. Monday will be interesting when the markets open...

Agree but we've had numerous other disruptions in the past year and nothing's really happened, including tankers attacked in The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil transit chokepoint - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

As someone else said, we don't import much oil into the US any more. It used to be as high as ~60% or so of our oil consumption. See U.S. Net Imports of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products (Thousand Barrels per Day), for example. The US consumes about 20.5 million barrels of oil/day (How much oil is consumed in the United States? - FAQ - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)).

It seems to take a crisis for this country to act. If we had something like Remembering the 1973 oil crisis … Bay Area photos again (we had two oil crises in the 70s) or gasoline went to $8+ gallon, perhaps Americans would be more sensible and buy more efficient vehicles, including plug-ins.

 

[nwdiver]

Agree but we've had numerous other disruptions in the past year and nothing's really happened, including tankers attacked in The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most important oil transit chokepoint - Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

As someone else said, we don't import much oil into the US any more. It used to be as high as ~60% or so of our oil consumption. See U.S. Net Imports of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products (Thousand Barrels per Day), for example. The US consumes about 20.5 million barrels of oil/day (How much oil is consumed in the United States? - FAQ - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)).

It seems to take a crisis for this country to act. If we had something like Remembering the 1973 oil crisis … Bay Area photos again (we had two oil crises in the 70s) or gasoline went to $8+ gallon, perhaps Americans would be more sensible and buy more efficient vehicles, including plug-ins.

None of those disruptions removed 5% of global oil capacity. It's also irrelevant that the US doesn't import much oil. We could export 2x as much as we import and gas prices will still rise because it's a global market. If Exxon can sell a bbl to Europe for $110 they're not going to sell it domestically for $90.

 

[cwerdna]

None of those disruptions removed 5% of global oil capacity. It's also irrelevant that the US doesn't import much oil. We could export 2x as much as we import and gas prices will still rise because it's a global market. If Exxon can sell a bbl to Europe for $110 they're not going to sell it domestically for $90.

Sure, there's the argument that oil's fungible but even w/predictions at Oil could rise $10 per barrel after drone attack forces Saudi to cut output in half, we're a quite a ways from $90/barrel, let alone $110.

When regular passes $4 or $4.50/gal here in the Bay Area, we'll start seeing local news start airing stories about "pain at the pump" again...

And knowing the short term memories of American consumers, if gas prices spike and stay that way for a few weeks or months, they'll suddenly flee their guzzler SUVs, want to dump them in favor of more efficient vehicles for a bit. Then, it'll eventually return to the status quo.

 

[RubberToe]

Large soft targets like the ones just hit in Saudi Arabia aren't going to be any match going forward for ever smaller and smarter drone swarms. This is just the beginning of what is going to end up being routine infrastructure terrorism. The fact that the Saudis were not able to prevent this just goes to show that the balance of power is already in favor of the drone swarms. Interesting to see the Middle East players putting their vast oil wealth to good use, destroying their neighbors vast oil wealth.

Any increase in gas prices, however small, does make EVs even more economical compared to ICE. Also, 10 well placed drones aren't going to stop California residents from charging their EVs. Decentralization has its merits. Electrify everything.

RT