Transportation’s Future Is Hybrid – in More Ways Than One

by Alec Shkolnik, co-founder & CEO of LiquidPiston Months before stepping down as CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda zigged at a time when the rest of the automotive industry zagged: he argued for an electrified future powered by both EVs and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). I couldn’t agree more. New... Read more →


GM Back in the EV Spotlight

by Brent Wilson, CEO of Galvanic Energy Following the introduction of the EV1 in the mid-1990s, GM dabbled with electric hybrids but didn’t introduce its next fully electric car, the Chevy Bolt, until 2016. It could be said that although GM was a pioneer in the EV industry, the Detroit-based... Read more →


Using blockchain traceability to build a circular battery economy

Following on from their joint presentation at the Future Battery Forum 2022, Ellen Carey, Vice President of Global Policy and Public Affairs at Circulor, and Fredrika Klarén, Global Head of Sustainability at Polestar, discuss the successful collaboration between their two companies, and how blockchain traceability will play a key role... Read more →


Galvanic, IBAT testing proves Smackover brine is DLE compatible

by Brent Wilson, president and CEO of Galvanic Energy It’s no secret that a steady supply of lithium is essential to the growth of the electric vehicle industry both here and abroad. We can find the lithium. The catch is identifying lithium that can be harvested economically and in a... Read more →


Rough road for EV industry

By Brent Wilson, CEO of Galvanic Energy. America’s electric vehicle (EV) industry seems to have hit a rough patch of pavement in recent months. Lithium prices continue to rise, and no new domestic lithium sources have yet to be established. Even Tesla, despite its substantial efforts to hold the line... Read more →


Nature Materials editorial urges reconsideration of approach to battery regulation in Europe

An open-access editorial in the journal Nature Materials observes that the porposed new regulations for the European battery industry could actually make the electrification of transport harder. The European Union (EU) … is planning to require that all new cars sold from 2035 have zero carbon emissions—a bold and valuable... Read more →


Infrastructure Bill Could Usher In New Era for EVs

by Brent Wilson, CEO of Galvanic Energy. Perhaps the most common argument against electric vehicles (EVs) has been the lack of recharging infrastructure. Many people think EVs are great for commuting or for driving around town, but take one on a road trip and things can get dicey. Who wants... Read more →


by Toby Gill, CEO, Intelligent Power Generation. With battery storage able to provide a unique role in balancing a renewable electricity grid, Toby Gill, CEO of Intelligent Power Generation, asks could innovations in green hydrogen and biofuel technologies contribute to a more optimized and economical energy mix? The growth of... Read more →


By Haden Kirkpatrick. Over the last two decades, fully electric cars have had, let’s say, a slow start. In 1997, the Toyota Prius was released as the world’s first mass-produced hybrid. And while hybrid technology has taken off, drivers have been hesitant to accept fully battery-powered tech for a variety... Read more →


The Environmental Protection Agency is not sufficiently protecting the environment

Opinion by Michael Sivak The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to protect human health and the environment. However, as the EPA is getting ready to relax the future vehicle fuel economy standards, the time is right to consider whether, under the current administration, this agency’s mission is,... Read more →


Are Autonomous Buses the Answer for Efficient Transportation and Reducing Emissions and Fuel Consumption?

by Dave Crichton Driverless cars are poised to decongest personal car traffic, shrink our eco footprint, free up parking spaces and reduce the frequency of collisions by about 90%. This could result in a conservative estimate of $642 billion in cost savings. But as promising as autonomous private vehicles are,... Read more →


The Next Oil Price Spike May Cripple The Industry

by Andreas de Vries and Dr. Salman Ghouri for Oilprice.com Two diametrically opposed views dominate the current debate about where the oil price is heading. On the one hand, there is the view that the price of oil will be “lower for longer”, or even “lower forever”, as the electrification... Read more →


by Dwayne Purvis for Oilprice.com Notwithstanding that oil demand has increased for over 150 years, it will eventually stop increasing. If oil demand were to reach an actual peak, then the top might be easier to predict. As it stands, the forecast models of demand are likely predicting peak demand... Read more →


Opinion: What A Westinghouse Bankruptcy Could Mean For U.S. Utilities

by Leonard Hyman and Bill Tilles for Oilprice.com International news services now report that Japan’s Toshiba Corporation (9502.T) is preparing to make a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the US for its Westinghouse Electric subsidiary. For most of our readers this news evokes little surprise. This is merely another chapter... Read more →


Opinion: Could A Lithium Shortage De-Rail The Electric Car Boom?

by James Stafford of Oilprice.com We’ve gone electric, and there’s no going back at this point. Lithium is our new fuel, but like fossil fuels, the reserves we’re currently tapping into are finite—and that’s what investors can take to the bank. You may think lithium got too popular too fast.... Read more →


by James Stafford of Oilprice.com So far, lithium has been the hottest metal of 2016, beating out gold, with exponential demand expected over the coming years. Although the price trajectory of the metal has been subdued in recent months, the fundamentals behind the long-term trajectory suggest strong potential for long-term... Read more →


by Roger Bedell, Founder, Opbrid Are we looking at vehicle electrification upside down? Why are we focusing on electrifying smaller vehicles like cars and delivery trucks when electrifying really big trucks makes the most economic sense? Electricity is about ½ the cost of diesel or gasoline. This means the more... Read more →


Opinion: Uranium Prices Set To Double By 2018

by James Stafford of Oilprice.com With prices set to double by 2018, we’ve seen the bottom of the uranium market, and the negative sentiment that has followed this resource around despite strong fundamentals, is starting to change. Billionaire investors sense it, and they’re always the first to anticipate change and... Read more →


3 Years Of Painful Cuts Sets Oil Markets Up For Serious Supply Crunch

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com Total global oil production could decline for the next several years in a row as scarce new sources of supply come online. According to data from Rystad Energy, overall global oil output will fall this year as natural depletion overwhelms all new sources of supply.... Read more →


PHEVLERs are the Zero CO2 Clean Green Machines of the Future

by Professor Andrew Alfonso Frank, CTO Efficient Drivetrains Inc. and UC-Davis Emeritus, Bruce R. Thomas and Catherine J DeMauro Abstract. The Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle with Long Electric Range (PHEVLER - pronounced “fevler”) is a new category emerging in the electric vehicle marketplace. PHEVLERs are defined as PHEVs with sufficient... Read more →


Tesla And Other Tech Giants Scramble For Lithium As Prices Double

by James Stafford of Oilprice.com Demand for lithium—the hottest commodity on the planet and the only commodity to show positive price movement in 2015—is poised to continue on its upward trajectory, becoming the world’s new gasoline and earning the moniker of “White Petroleum”. And the battle for market share in... Read more →


Opinion: The Current Oil Price Rally Is Reaching Its Limits

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com Oil prices have climbed by about 50 percent from their February lows, topping $40 per barrel. But the rally could be reaching its limits, at least temporarily, as persistent oversupply and the prospect of new shale production caps any potential price increase. US oil production... Read more →


by Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com This is a financial cold war—nothing more, nothing less. While there are billions of reasons to cut output, and every major producing country is reeling from the loss of revenues, some are weathering the current bust better than others, but the devil is in the... Read more →


Oil Well Strippers Suffering From Low Oil Prices

by Michael McDonald of Oilprice.com With OPEC breaking down and any kind of coordination among its members on price cuts looking increasingly unlikely, it now appears that oil prices could remain below $50 a barrel for a year or more. As producers confront this unpleasant reality, some will finally start... Read more →


by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com Russia’s central bank recently warned about the growing financial risks to the Russian economy from Saudi Arabia encroaching upon its traditional export market for crude oil. Russia sends 70 percent of its oil to Europe, but Saudi Arabia has been making inroads in the European... Read more →


Opinion: Political Climate Shifting Against The Oil And Gas Industry

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com Oil and gas companies have had a tough time over the past year trying to weather the storm of falling oil prices. But the political and financial winds are moving in the wrong direction for the industry, raising more “above ground” problems at a time... Read more →


Opinion: Oil Megaprojects Won’t Stay On The Shelf For Long

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com One casualty of the oil price downturn could be the megaproject. For years, as conventional oil reserves depleted and became increasingly hard to find, oil companies ventured into far-flung locales to find new sources of production. Extracting oil from these frontier areas required more advanced... Read more →


Opinion: Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Takes A Step Forward

by Michael McDonald of Oilprice.com For the first time in close to a century, mankind may be about to give serious attention to a technology that has the potential to be a true game-changer in transportation. Elon Musk famously proposed the idea of the Hyperloop a few years ago [earlier... Read more →


Opinion: Enablers of disruption in transportation

by Mike Millikin, editor, Green Car Congress This post is part of the ‘Think Further’ series sponsored by Fred Alger Management. For more “Think Further” content, please visit www.thinkfurtheralger.com.” The car has become the most computationally complex high-tech device with which the vast majority of consumers will ever come into... Read more →


by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com Two men enter, one man leaves, two men enter, one man leaves, two men enter... —Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome November 27, oil consuming countries will celebrate the first anniversary of the Saudi decision to let market forces determine prices. This decision set crude prices on... Read more →


Opinion: China To Continue Expanding Its Influence In The Oil And Gas Sector

by John Manfreda for Oilprice.com Since 2009, China has been taking a much more active role in its pursuit of international oil contracts. In 2009, for the first time, Saudi Arabia exported more of its oil to China than it did to the U.S. China also made large investments in... Read more →


Opinon: Lithium Market Set To Explode; All Eyes Are On Nevada

by James Stafford of Oilprice.com While other commodities are floundering or completely collapsing in this market, lithium—the critical mineral in the emerging battery gigafactory war—is poised to explode, and going forward Nevada is emerging as the front line in this pending American lithium boom. Most of the world’s lithium comes... Read more →


by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com President Putin’s recent moves in the Middle East—to shore up Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria through deployment of combat aircraft, equipment, and manpower and build-out of air-, naval-, and ground-force bases, and the agreement in the last week with Iran, Iraq, and Syria on intelligence... Read more →


Opinion: This Is What Needs To Happen For Oil Prices To Stabilize

by Dan Doyle for Oilprice.com Dan Doyle is president of Reliance Well Services, a hydraulic fracturing company based in Pennsylvania. On September 10th, the EIA reported a production decline in the Lower 48—essentially shale production—of 208,000 BOPD (barrels of oil per day). That is a staggeringly enormous number, approximately 10... Read more →


by Art Berman for Oilprice.com The party is over for tight oil. Despite brash statements by US producers and misleading analysis by Raymond James, low oil prices are killing tight oil companies. Reports this week from IEA and EIA paint a bleak picture for oil prices as the world production... Read more →


Opinion: The Default Next Move For Oil Is Downwards, And Here’s Why

by Martin Tillier of Oilprice.com As traders, investors and pundits, we all like to think that what we do is akin to a science. We believe that by working harder and being smarter we can give ourselves an edge, that enough research will reveal to us the next move, either... Read more →


by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com “If you are the world’s leading energy economy, you produce energy, that’s what you do.” “A government can stay irrational longer than it can stay solvent.” “Even in the short term, you’re dead, if you commit suicide.” The first quote modifies a GEICO commercial describing... Read more →


by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com OPEC next gathers December 4 in Vienna, just over a year since Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi announced at the previous OPEC winter meeting the Saudi decision to let the oil market determine oil prices rather than to continue Saudi Arabia's role of guarantor of... Read more →


Opinion: Saudi Oil Strategy: Brilliant Or Suicide?

by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com In the last quarter of 2014, in the face of possible oversupply, Saudi Arabia abandoned its traditional role as the global oil market’s swing producer and therefore it role as unofficial guarantor of existing ($100+ per barrel) prices. In October, Saudi sources first prepared the... Read more →


by Gaurav Agnihotri of Oilprice.com Saudi Arabia has long enjoyed the status of being the top crude oil exporter in the world. With record production of 10.564 million barrels per day in June 2015, Saudi Arabia has been one of the major driving forces behind the current oil price slump.... Read more →


Opinion: Global Oil Supply More Fragile Than You Think

by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com Many oil companies had trimmed their budgets heading into 2015 to deal with lower oil prices. But the rebound in April and May to $60 per barrel from the mid-$40s suggested that the severe drop was merely temporary. But the collapse of prices in July—owing... Read more →


by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com A flood of bearish news has pushed down oil prices to their lowest levels in months, with WTI nearing $45 per barrel and Brent flirting with sub-$50 territory. With a bear market back, there is pessimism throughout the oil markets. Goldman Sachs is even predicting... Read more →


By Gaurav Agnihotri for Oilprice.com With the recently concluded nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries, oil prices have already started heading downward on sentiments that Iran’s crude oil supply would further contribute to the already rising global supply glut. The economic crisis in Greece, OPEC’s high production levels... Read more →


by Henry Hewitt for Oilprice.com During the late innings of the ICE-age (as in the Internal Combustion Engine age) it has become clear that feeding gasoline and diesel to the next billion new cars is not going to be easy, or cheap. In China alone, 500 million new vehicles can... Read more →