Big Oil To 'Lose Control Of Auto Industry': Energy Conference

It's not uncommon for media commenters to look at electric-car sales numbers, only to conclude that the segment is teetering on the brink of death.

Electric cars will never become mainstream, they argue, because of fickle consumers who base their-car purchases on what the price of gas happens to be the moment they walk into a dealership.

Yet while the media engages in a tug of war over gas-price analysis, there are encouraging signs pointing to continued growth of electric-car adoption.

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Sales have steadily increased since the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf first went on sale in December 2010, and the cost of the batteries that power these cars is decreasing.

Those trends inspired the provocative title "Big Oil Is About to Lose Control of the Auto Industry," for a recent article by Bloomberg (via Charged EVs).

The article promotes the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) conference held two weeks ago, where optimism about electric cars was in abundance.

Analysts argued that electric power will not only supplant traditional fossil fuels, but also alternative backed by the oil industry, such as ethanol and biodiesel.

Oil consumption peaked in 2004 and has remained flat ever since, Bloomberg says.

That's partially due to consistent improvements in new-car fuel economy, as well as lifestyle changes that see Americans driving less.

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Meanwhile, electric-car sales have steadily risen over the past four years.

Bloomberg puts the global sales total for 2014 at 288,500 units. That's just 0.5 percent of all new-car sales, but also more than five times the number sold in 2011.