Audi joins the peak oil chorus

German car maker Audi believes the world has reached – or is in the middle of reaching – peak oil. General Motors, formerly the world's biggest car maker, made a similar claim at the Detroit motor show three years ago when it unveiled the Volt electric car.

Audi's announcement came as the company unveiled a plan to install four large wind turbines in the North Sea in 2013 – enough to power a city of 35,000 people or 1500 Audi electric cars. The announcement came as the US President Barack Obama ordered a new search for oil in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to bring down oil prices in the wake of flagging opinion polls.

The pilot program could be expanded to include up to 62 wind turbines in the same region if successful.

Although the energy would only be enough to power a fraction of 1 per cent of Audi cars sold worldwide, the installation makes Audi one of just three car makers taking energy for their vehicles into their own hands.

General Motors is investing in factories that can turn municipal waste into ethanol that can power cars, and Chinese car maker BYD, which fancies itself as an electric car specialist, has its own solar panel facilities.

Speaking at an Audi energy conference called 'Balanced Mobility' in Hamburg at the weekend, Heinz Hollerweger, head of vehicle development said: "We all know that fossil fuels are finite. Whether we speak of oil, crude oil or gas, that scarcity is an issue we have to address and confront.

"No matter which study and research project we look at, we know we are somewhere at the peak of oil production right now, and in five, ten, fifteen years time the ratio between the discovery and exploration of new sources and wells, and old wells being closed, will more or less be unequal.

"[In] about 15 years time we will see that production really decreasing and we will see less and less sources of oil being mapped out.

"So replacement for fossil fuels is really going to be something of ever more pressing urgency. The availability and risk of adequate supply is set to increase."

A veteran of the car industry, Hollerweger said: "This is more than temporary hype, this seems to be a stage in our development. We are quite convinced the next step in our development is sustainability."

A consultant on the wind turbine project, Dr Michael Sterner, a Fraunhofer Institute specialist in wind energy, said: "Solutions for [what powers] our mobility are scarce. The world is highly dependent on oil ... but it is only a matter of time before there is no more or it becomes prohibitively expensive. The world's population is increasing, the number of cars is increasing, there will not be enough energy to go around at the current rate."

There are 1 billion cars on the road today but with the growth of China, India and Russia we could reach 4 billion cars in the next 20 to 30 years.

Dr Sterner said industrialisation over the past 200 years had consumed much of the fossil fuel that had taken 3 to 4 million years to create. "And within the next century there will be no more fossil fuels, so we must find viable alternatives."

Another energy consultant at the conferece, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, who co-authored the book Factor Five about climate change with two Australian authors said: "It is urgent and pressing that we really improve ourselves as far as the environment is concerned. The climate situation is anything but calm. There are quite dangerous and threatening scenarios."

He said the wealth of the world could be matched with our carbon dioxide emissions. "Per capita CO2 emissions have almost been increasing on par with GDP. Which means in turn that … active participation in climate protection is immunistaion of wealth creation. We need to uncouple wealth generation [from CO2 output]."

"If we are steering towards a total 4 billion cars then we must act now.

"You cannot power all cars with wind [turbine-powered electricity]. We need public infrastructure. Not everybody has to sit behind his own wheel. This must become the first green growth cycle."

Audi's wind turbine solution gives the car maker a three-way bet. The wind can create electricity to power electric cars, or be used to create hydrogen or a synthetic version of compressed natural gas.

Audi showcased the technology alongside a CNG-powered Audi A3 prototype and confirmed a CNG version of the car would be available when the new model goes on sale in 2013.

But Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker said Audi's wind-powered alternative was not a cost-effective solution. Yet.

"It's not profitable now," he said. "You would pay more for a mile than you do today but if oil prices go up and economies of scale improve, I believe it's ok."

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