In an interview, Exxon Mobile CEO Darren Woods predicted that every new automobile sold in the world would be electric by 2040. According to Canalys, a market research firm, in 2021 only 9% of all passenger car sales were electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids. That number was up 109% over 2020.

Exxon Mobil is presently examining how this would affect the business model of what calls itself the largest, “refiner and marketer of petroleum products.”

Having begun his career on the chemical-production side of Exxon Mobil, Woods says he believes the chemical side of the business will be key to navigating the transition. He points out that the plastics Exxon Mobile produces will be used extensively in the production of the new EVs. Petroleum products provide the base molecules from which plastics and polymers are made.

Woods notes that even with the shift from internal combustion engines in vehicles, Exxon Mobil’s analysis predicts that oil demand in 2040 will be approximately equivalent to what it was in 2013, and that the company was profitable at that time.

Woods ended the interview saying, “that change will not make or break this business or this industry quite frankly.”