Electric vehicles - known unknown threat

Electric vehicles are either a fad or a big problem for the oil industry, depending on who you speak to. But the sector should beware of complacency

For an industry still relying on people pouring its flammable product into a contraption that sets off a series of tiny explosions to propel a tonne of metal along a road—an ingenious mobility technology that is already more than a century old—the oil sector has been pretty relaxed about the threat of electric vehicles (EVs). Or that's its public face, anyway. At most industry conferences, oil executives will be heard poking fun at EVs' tiny share of the car market. Inevitably, they'll follow this with projections showing that the internal-combustion engine (ICE) will remain king for decades to come, even if do-gooder eco-warriors spend their savings on Nissan Leafs. But as the current oil p