Shell CEO Predicts Electric-Drive Cars Will Comprise 40% of Global Market by 2050

As if anyone's going to be able to call him on it, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser said Thursday that he expects electricity-powered vehicles to account for as much as 40 percent of the worldwide car market by 2050.

Voser, speaking at a Wall Street Journal conference in Santa Barbara, California, said technological improvements and increases in the cost of producing gasoline will give a boost to vehicles that run on alternative power.

"We think between now and 2050, we will go from 1 billion cars to 2 billion cars worldwide," he said. "We think by 2050, roughly 40 percent of those 2 billion cars will be electric."

In the next 40 years, the market needs low-carbon fuels, more efficient engines and hybrid vehicles, Voser said.

"I think there will be room and space to develop all of them," he added.

Gasoline demand in developed countries like the United States has started to decline, partly as vehicles running on alternative fuels have entered the market. Companies such as Shell and British Petroleum are spending more money on those newer technologies, including for next-generation biofuels.

Automakers such as Ford Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. are racing to launch electric cars, betting these will be the so-called environmentally friendly transportation of the future. Small players including Tesla Motors already sell electric vehicles.

Voser said Shell was investing 25 percent of its research and development budget into renewables, including wind power and biofuels. The company recently bet big on ethanol by striking a deal with Brazil's Cosan to create a $21 billion a year ethanol joint venture.