NACS Report Expects Gasoline to Remain Dominant Fuel Source
February 25th, 2014 by Fiedler Group
According to the 2014 NACS “Future of Fuels” report, gasoline will remain the dominant fuel source powering light duty vehicles through 2040.
Published with the intent of helping retailers make informed investment decisions based on market trends, the annual NACS report provides projections for the energy markets utilizing the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2014 (AE02014) report to prepare their analysis.
While alternative fueled vehicles and their sources continue to see significant grow, the report still expects gasoline, diesel, and E85 to be the overwhelming dominant fuel source for light duty vehicles — and by so much as a 99 percent market share still, in 2040 — especially with more than 250 million vehicles on the nation’s roadways today.
Without denying the efficiencies of alternative fuel vehicles, the report also expects gasoline-powered vehicle efficiency to improve by 42 percent in 2040, which would lead to 24 percent reduction in gasoline consumption (which would be offset by increases in diesel and E85 consumption).
The government’s NACS report is a decidedly different outlook on the alternative energy market than what advocates and marketers of alternative energy might portray, which gives retailers cause to seek out additional information in order to properly evaluate new product opportunity demand.
The report acknowledges non-liquid fuel alternatives growing in popularity and adoption — natural gas, propane, electricity, and hydrogen will experience a 125% increase in light duty energy consumption, but the fuel alternatives will only account for 0.7% of energy consumed in 2040.
Among the non-liquid alternatives, the report indicates the electricity will experience the strongest growth increasing in non-liquid fuel market share from 2.5% to over 38% by 2040.
