[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]SYDNEY: World oil prices could settle around $US50 ($NZ73.42) a barrel-plus, but were unlikely to bring forward plans for vehicles powered by new fuels because of a lack of infrastructure, BMW Chief Executive Helmut Panke said.[/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif] [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"We will have to be prepared to live with oil prices that will be significantly higher than anyone would have thought at the same time last year," Panke told a briefing in Sydney. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Something in the $50s is going to be a level we are going to have to live with." The BMW head, on his first visit to Australia to address a business conference, said high oil prices, currently above $US70 a barrel, would hurt consumers at the petrol pump and also drive up input prices for plastics used to make vehicles. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]In the next five to eight years, Panke said every manufacturer would offer at least one hybrid vehicle - powered by batteries and petrol - but these were only suitable for urban drivers. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Car makers were unlikely to bring forward plans for hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, given the need to get infrastructure in place at gas stations to power the cars. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"I think we will not see an acceleration in the world's vehicle markets because some of the infrastructure will not be done," Panke said. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Realistically, we will have to wait until about 2020 - you could also say 20 years from now, no-one knows exactly - until we have something like 10-15 per cent of the vehicles being offered to be fueled by either just hydrogen or a bi-fuel solution," he said. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Panke said high oil prices could also drive some consumers away from fuel-hungry larger vehicles, but this was likely to be felt least at the premium end of the market occupied by Munich-based BMW, the world's largest premium carmaker. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif] [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"We will have to be prepared to live with oil prices that will be significantly higher than anyone would have thought at the same time last year," Panke told a briefing in Sydney. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Something in the $50s is going to be a level we are going to have to live with." The BMW head, on his first visit to Australia to address a business conference, said high oil prices, currently above $US70 a barrel, would hurt consumers at the petrol pump and also drive up input prices for plastics used to make vehicles. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]In the next five to eight years, Panke said every manufacturer would offer at least one hybrid vehicle - powered by batteries and petrol - but these were only suitable for urban drivers. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Car makers were unlikely to bring forward plans for hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, given the need to get infrastructure in place at gas stations to power the cars. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"I think we will not see an acceleration in the world's vehicle markets because some of the infrastructure will not be done," Panke said. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]"Realistically, we will have to wait until about 2020 - you could also say 20 years from now, no-one knows exactly - until we have something like 10-15 per cent of the vehicles being offered to be fueled by either just hydrogen or a bi-fuel solution," he said. [/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]Panke said high oil prices could also drive some consumers away from fuel-hungry larger vehicles, but this was likely to be felt least at the premium end of the market occupied by Munich-based BMW, the world's largest premium carmaker. [/font]
