Elon Musk said he “feels a bit bad” about hating on the oil and gas industry through the years, saying that many oil companies built their business of producing and burning fossil fuels before it became clear that oil and gas contribute to climate change.
In a wide-ranging conversation on the Sway with Kara Swisher of The New York Times, Tesla’s founder and chief executive said “Honestly, I feel a bit bad about hating on the oil and gas industry.”
“For a lot of the people in the oil and gas industry, especially if they’re on the older side, they built their companies and did their work before it was clear that this was a serious issue,” Musk said.
“And now they feel probably hard done by, that people are making them out to be villains, when they’re for the longest time just working hard to support the economy, and didn’t really know that it would be all that bad,” he added.
In the past, Musk has accused the fossil fuel industry of “unrelenting and enormous” propaganda and called on people to revolt against it.
Musk has also said that automakers and oil companies have agendas against Tesla and against electric vehicles.
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But right now, Musk told Kara Swisher, automakers are making EVs and this was one of Tesla’s goals—to have the industry start realizing that the future of road transportation is electric.
Although Musk said he feels bad about hating on oil, he said that “end of the fossil fuel vehicle is nigh.”
Analysts believe that the tipping point for mass EV adoption could be just a few years away. Analysts have estimated that battery pack prices should drop to US$100/kWh so that electric vehicles have a chance to compete on cost with the internal combustion engine. Automakers and industry experts believe that the US$100/kWh milestone could be reached as early as in 2024, or even sooner—and that milestone will unleash the electric vehicle revolution.
On its Battery Day last week, Tesla promised drastic cuts in battery costs and a $25,000 self-driving EV within three or more years, but the event was light on details and described as ‘underwhelming’ by analysts.
