Hybrid cars may not save much oil, recent analysis concludes

Owners of hybrid cars in New Jersey may be interested in a new analysis of battery-operated vehicles and their projected impact on oil consumption over the next two decades.

According to J. Marshall Adkins and Pavel Molchanov, analysts for the financial services firm Raymond James, hybrid cars had a market share of approximately 3 percent last year.

The two analysts found that, even under the highest-growth assumptions, where hybrids own a third of the market share in 2020, oil savings would be relatively insignificant.

Under those conditions, the U.S. would save roughly 200,000 barrels of oil a day, less than 1 percent of the nation’s oil demand, according to the Oil and Gas Journal.

“No matter how ‘cool’ and popular the concept might be, from the oil market’s standpoint, hybrids will be irrelevant as far as the eye can see,” the analyst stated, quoted by the New York Times.

The report went on to say that, according to the analyst’s calculations, “the internal combustion engine isn’t going anywhere.”