Reply #5: Times up for a lot of things. [View All]

Petrol cars are just one of those things, and not so big a worry as simple food and a warm dry place to sleep.

The upper classes will have their electric cars. The lower classes will have very little.

Families who once depended on cars will learn to do without. Following peak oil there will inevitably be a worldwide peak in personal automobile ownership. Electric cars won't solve this problem because the infrastructure that supports cars also depends upon inexpensive high-energy-return-on-investment petroleum. Fewer people will have cars while the cost of constructing and maintaining roads skyrockets. Decrepit roads and high costs will further reduce the incentives for owning personal automobiles, which will justify further reductions in road maintenance.

Declining oil production will bring an end to the personal automobile culture.