Current transport sector unsustainable: Shell CEO

According to Royal Dutch Shell’s outgoing Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer, it is more important to increase efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles given that any overhaul of the transport sector will take decades. Shell predicts that global vehicle population will double to two billion units by 2050—thus, the number of plug-in hybrids, full-electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will grow as well. Shell foresees a future in which its retail outlets will offer to service and replace batteries for electric cars, alongside selling petrol and diesel fuel which will remain dominant fuels in the near future, van der Veer said. (May 9, 2009)