Electric Cars “To Reverberate Through Other Sectors,” BNEF’s Liebreich & McCrone Explain

The electric vehicle is expected to “reverberate through other sectors,” such as oil, electricity, retailing, and even tax collection, according to a new commentary published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Authored by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) advisory board chairman Michael Liebreich and chief editor Angus McCrone, the new commentary, entitled “Electric vehicles – it’s not just about the car,” points to the falling costs of batteries as driving rapid growth in the electric vehicle market between now and 2040. As a result of this growth, Liebreich and McCrone contend that the impact of the electric vehicle will be felt through a number of industries — oil, electricity, retailing, tax collection, construction, dealer networks, city infrastructure, and freight transport.

BNEF has been relatively bullish on the idea that electric vehicle adoption will only increase, thanks in part to the decreasing costs of batteries, as well as the firm’s belief that “electric vehicles out-compete internal combustion cars in lots of important dimensions: they drive more smoothly yet accelerate better, they can be charged at home or at the office, they require much less maintenance, they help solve air quality problems, they improve the energy autonomy of oil-importing countries.”

In addition, BNEF points to the electric vehicle’s “vastly superior platform for autonomous driving, infotainment, connected vehicle, and transport-as-a-service technologies.”

“The coming shift to electric, digitally-connected vehicles will have dramatic implications for the car industry,” Liebreich and McCrone point out, before moving on to what they believe will be the natural extension of this shift.

For all the seismic shifts electric vehicles will bring to the car industry, as with mobile phones and cheap renewable energy, as with all transformations in major economic sectors, some of the biggest impacts may be felt in other parts of the economy. 

The full commentary can be read here, and is worth a read to understand the impact that the electric vehicle is going to have on which sectors.

Here’s an interview CleanTechnica conducted with Michael Liebreich in January, largely about electric vehicles, followed by some presentations about related matters: