Opec and the oil barons face a slow death by electrification

Opec, Russia and Big Oil thought they had half a century to prepare for the end of the internal combustion engine. At best they have a decade before the threat turns deadly serious.

The switch to electric vehicles could soon
turn into a stampede as prices for electric
 and fossil cars reach parity.

The twin announcement by France and Britain - within two weeks of each other - to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040 is an earthquake in the energy world.

Others are moving in parallel. A non-binding resolution of the German Bundesrat [its upper house of parliament] has called for a prohibition by 2030. Norway already has such a target by 2025 and the catalytic effect is spectacular: sales of electric vehicles (EVs) reached 42 per cent of all cars in July.

China's new plan stipulates that zero-emission vehicles must make up 8 per cent of total sales next year, rising to 10 per cent in 2019, and 12 per cent in 2020. This is an even bigger earthquake. Those German and Japanese manufacturers that do not yet produce EVs - or not enough - face being shut out of the world's largest car market.

Read Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald - “Opec and the oil barons face a slow death by electrification.”