Chinese technology companies are paving the way for a world that will be powered by electric motors rather than gas-guzzling engines. It is a decisively 21st-century approach not just to solve its own energy problems, but also to sell batteries and other electric products to everyone else. Canada is its newest buyer of EVs; in a rebuke of Mr. Trump, its prime minister, Mark Carney, lowered tariffs on the cars as part of a new trade deal.
Though Americans have been slow to embrace electric vehicles, Chinese households have learned to love them. In 2025, 54 percent of new cars sold in China were either battery-powered or plug-in hybrids. That is a big reason that the country’s oil consumption is on track to peak in 2027, according to forecasts from the International Energy Agency. And Chinese E.V makers are setting records — whether it’s BYD’s sales (besting Tesla by battery-powered vehicles sold for the first time last year) or Xiaomi’s speed (its cars are setting records at major racetracks like Nürburgring in Germany).
Oil is still king. It’s not by a long shot about to lose it’s value as a strategic resource.
King eh? Well I didn’t vote for yah!
Not sure about that.
Nuclear energy is safer than ever.
We even have small nuclear reactors that can use spent fuel from the larger ones, thus solving in part the disposal of it.
Furthermore, significant advances have been achieved on fision power.
Clinging to oil is like refusing to replace your horse with a car.
Do we? Last I heard there aren’t any in service.
We’ll need a hell of a lot more advances before fusion is even close to powering a grid.
Are you guys taking about fusion? Aren’t all nuclear powerplants using fission reactions?
Corrected, thanks!
When you have plug-in hybrid tanks or nuclear powered strategic bombers oil will see a diminish in it’s strategic relevance as a resource.
Fusion is nowhere near being in industrial use or being profitable. In the future, maybe, pending more breakthroughs.
Whether nuclear is a good idea to cling to going forward or not, it takes time to deploy. Those small reactors don’t just come off a shelf, ready to be turned on. Oil, however, can generate power TODAY, anywhere you can ship it.
The question isn’t whether it’s a good idea to keep burning oil – it definitely isn’t – the question is whether oil is still a hugely important energy commodity and the answer is a resounding yes. Notably, the article mentions that China’s oil use hasn’t even peaked yet. China does not use a small amount of oil.
We are long past peak oil. Look I’m not saying we’re not going to need oil long into the future and its use for aviation is currently unsurpassed but the argument is our reliance on oil is waning as newer technologies have come into play, especially in the power generation and automotive sectors. Chemical and plastic production is still vital and that can’t be done without oil. We’re not getting away from using it for a long tine but it’s past it’s peak.
What Dumpy forgets is supply and demand (because he’s one of the worst business people ever) and releasing more oil into the market from his imperialist acquisitions means a drop in value - even the oil execs were apprehensive as to whether the takeover of Venezuela and being told they need to fix up their processing was a good thing as they don’t want the market flooded as that will cause the cost of oil to plummet.
As far as I’m aware peak oil production has not been recognized to have happened yet.
It is still assumed that global oil consumption scales with economic growth and under 2025 consumption increased.