Will All These Future Electric Cars Hurt the Oil Change Industry in 2010?

The more things change, the more they seem the same, and that is especially true with business and industry. Often we believe that things are going to change very rapidly, and new innovations are going to take over and change the world or the industry subsector that we are in. However, it usually turns out, that things do not change very fast; consumer buying behavior doesn’t change all that much, and everything just keeps on going as it was only advancing incrementally with only a few game changing innovations in any given industry every decade or two.

Now then, what about the oil change industry, and what about all those electric cars, they don’t have oil in them. If a larger and larger percentage of the cars we drive on the roads in the United States don’t have oil inside, then we don’t need as many oil change facilities, do we? Well, on first look that makes good sense doesn’t it – still, it will be quite a while until the number of electric cars even gets to a 10% level.

Likewise, The New Chevrolet Volt for instance is really a hybrid, that is to say that there is a motor or generator that charges the batteries which operate and run the car, as the batteries get too low and we know that in generators, you have to change the oil too.

Nevertheless, there will be more and more plug-in hybrids on the road in the coming years. These will be small city-cars, not really made for long trips. Some of the manufacturers will be able to produce cars that have extremely long range, and they will be able to recharge those batteries extremely fast. This means that some gas stations may actually be electrical stations.

Places where you plug your car in 10 minutes; have a cup of coffee, read the newspaper, grab a sandwich and go. In actuality will only take about five minutes longer than it normally would take to put gas in your car, and the price per mile will be a whole lot less.

But until that potential eventuality ever happens, I do not believe that the oil change industry has anything to worry about with all these new electric cars that will supposedly be on the road in the next decade or so. Indeed, hope you’ll please consider all this.