Patents suggest Big Oil remains committed to ICE fuels

Electric vehicles (EVs) represented 14% of global vehicle sales in 2022—up from 4% in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. If current trends continue, EVs will capture almost one-fifth of total sales by the end of 2023 and mitigate the need for five million barrels of oil per day by 2030.

As such, it is hardly surprising that several Big Oil companies have begun to diversify their energy portfolios. Public investments include BP’s Pulse brand of EV charging solutions, Shell’s hydrogen projects, and ExxonMobil’s synthetic fuel (e-fuel) developments with Porsche. All three indicate that firms are preparing for a less oil dependent future.

However, the transition is not without tension. An ad campaign launched in July 2023 by Exxon subsidiary Mobil Oil equated ‘freedom’ to refuelling with gasoline instead of electricity. The company has yet to announce investments in the EV charging sphere, although it has maintained an EV fluids product range since 2019. With mixed signals on progress from the oil industry, how can the next decade of its activities be discerned?