Impact of Hybrid Electric Vehicles on the World's Petroleum Consumption and Supply
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The depletion of the world oil reserves is a major problem facing the world community today. The number of years that oil resources can support our energy needs depends on its proven reserves, new discovery and cumulative consumption. As more countries evolve from developing nations into industrialized societies, the number of vehicles on the road skyrockets. This drastically increasing number of cars on the road is one of the main causes of the rapid depletion of the world oil resources. It also impacts the environment in the form of acid rain, global warming and increased concentrations of ozone near the surface of the earth. This basically leaves two alternatives, stipend the growth of industry or reduce the fuel usage of our vehicles. Recession is not very enjoyable, therefore great efforts are being made to improve the fuel efficiency of modern vehicles, but due to the physical characteristics of internal combustion engines, there is an efficiency limit. In this paper it will be proven that using current hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) technology, the efficiency of cars can easily be improved and the life of our oil reserves can be drastically enhanced. This paper effectively establishes the impact of HEVs on the petroleum reserves as well as consumption rates for the future and illustrates the immediate and impending need to switch over to HEVs as a world policy. Copyright 2003 SAE International.
