Are Oil Companies really keeping electric cars from being further developed or not?

Yes or No?





Why don't electric companies lobby for this, or push for this if this is something that would benefit them greatly. Is there some war between the Oil and Electric companies?



I would say that it's more likely for the auto manufacturers to oppose electric cars since the cost of batteries are quite high due to the materials required and currently, any mass production would drive those prices up due to the limited supply of lithium. The auto manufacturers do want to introduce another technology as it would create a demand for new vehicles above normal replacement cycles. They've always invested in designed obsolescence whether it be style changes such as tail fins, concept changes such as SUV's, or technology changes such as Hybrids, Flexfuel and more powerful engines. The net effect of these introductions has been to allow production growth at a higher rate than the population growth. Electric vehicles do fit into this model but not as well as hydrogen cars since the batteries would represent a significant cost that could not be reduced whereas fuel cells though expensive now, are likely to become less expensive when in mass production as it's more technology than materials.





EV's represent a problem for Electric companies as the transmission infrastructure is already at it's limits. There is surplus capacity but at different time slots so charge on demand EV's would be costly to Electric companies however if the transmission lines are made intelligent and can coordinate with the EV's that are plugged in to schedule their charges, they could maximize the use of existing transmission lines. Hence Electric companies are in a quandry, if EV's are introduced before intelligent transmission line protocols are standardized and enforced on the plugins, they would have to upgrade their infrastructure but if intelligent infrastructure can be deployed first and auto manufacturers cooperate then the Electric companies stand to benefit. Unfortunately, deploying intelligence in the power grid is not a trivial task so the Electric companies can do with as much delay in EV introductions as possible.





Oil companies see themselves as Energy companies and invest in every form of energy development. Many of the fundamentals are the same, the property negotiations and land leasing for wind power is very similar to securing drilling rights and right of ways for pipelines so oil companies are still the most experienced at those tasks. Granted they will promote whatever is most profitable at the time but you can bet that whatever comes out on the market, the oil companies will be positioned to take advantage of it.




No relation .