Oil prices are tumbling again, and the green lobby is fuming. On Tuesday, both Saudi Aramco and BP reported their third-quarter earnings, both were modestly improved compared to previous results, sure, but hardly fireworks. The real story, however, lies not in the spreadsheets, but in the barrels. Global oil demand is weak, supply is ballooning, and OPEC+ has quietly admitted that 2026 will likely bring a glut roughly four million barrels per day more than the world actually needs.
You don’t need an MBA from Harvard, or your local night school, to know what happens next: when there’s too much oil, prices fall. And when petrol gets cheaper, electric vehicle sales tend to stall faster than a Taycan’s resale value.
The green evangelists won’t want to hear it, but falling oil prices are a death knell for the already faltering EV dream. With petrol prices heading south, the supposed “savings” of owning an electric car vanish overnight. Who wants to fork out twice the money for a battery-powered hatchback that takes an hour to charge costs more to ‘fill-up’ than an ICE car and still can’t get you to the next city without a prayer?
Donald Trump’s tariffs and global economic malaise may have dented GDP growth, but ironically, they’ve also highlighted how fragile the EV fantasy truly is. Even China, once the high priest of electrification, is quietly backpedalling, as its economy slows and consumers rediscover the humble efficiency of internal combustion.
Meanwhile, oil producers are preparing for a year of cheaper petrol, shrinking profits, and renewed market share. But make no mistake: lower fuel costs mean one thing, drivers will stick with what works. The internal combustion engine may not be politically correct, allegedly, but it remains economically irresistible.
So as the eco-zealots polish their Net Zero manifestos and iron their memp trousers, the rest of the world will be filling up their tanks, grinning, and quietly thinking: “Maybe the end of oil isn’t quite here after all.”
