Road transport energy consumption in the G7 and BRICS: 1973–2010

Road transport will account for a large share of developing countries’ future energy demand. This paper reviews the trends in road transport energy consumption in 12 countries (Group of Seven (G7) and BRICS) over the period 1973–2010. We report several stylised facts: road transport energy use and its share in total energy use have been rising; there were large differences in road transport energy use per capita across countries, resulting from differences in country size, resource endowments, fuel prices and other factors; oil accounts for around 95% of road transport energy in the selected countries except Brazil; oil will likely be the dominant road transport energy source in most countries for some years to come but not in the long run; and the use of alternative road transport energy sources is increasing.We are thankful for financial support from the ‘Strategic Priority Research Program’ of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA05150600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71322306, 71273027 and 71020107026) and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of Ministry of Education of China (No. NCET-13-0040)