Oil-Free Transportation

The paper proposes a 'lightweighting first' strategy to drastically reduce tractive load in automobiles, trucks, and aircraft, making electric and hydrogen powertrains more affordable and efficient. It argues that integrating advanced materials like carbon-fiber composites with smarter logistics and urban planning can lead to an oil-free U.S. transportation sector by 2050, providing significant economic savings and carbon emission reductions.

• Current internal-combustion automotive powertrains are highly inefficient, with approximately 86% of fuel energy lost to engine losses, idling, driveline losses, and accessory loads before reaching the wheels.
• Reducing tractive load through lightweighting is more effective than improving powertrain efficiency alone; saving one unit of energy at the wheels can save seven units of fuel in conventional vehicles, or about 3.5 units in full hybrids.
• The use of carbon-fiber composites can enable 'ultralighting' that makes electrification more affordable by reducing the required number of batteries or fuel cells by 2 to 3 times.
• Heavy Class 7 and 8 trucks have the potential to triple their current cargo-hauling efficiency through a combination of aerodynamic refinements, reduced rolling resistance, improved engine thermal efficiency, and the use of 'turnpike doubles'.
• Long-term efficiency gains for commercial jet fleets are estimated at 3 to 5-fold through innovations in wing design and composite structures, potentially increasing to 6 to 7-fold if liquid-hydrogen 'cryoplanes' are adopted.
• U.S. driving could be reduced by 46% to 84% for the same level of access by implementing IT-enhanced transit, New Urbanist land-use models, road infrastructure charging by the kilometer, and IT-smoothed traffic flow.
• Transitioning the U.S. mobility sector to be completely oil-free by 2050 is projected to have a 17% internal rate of return, with a total net-present-value saving potential of $4 trillion.

APA

Lovinsa, A. B. (n.d.). Oil-Free Transportation. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_AIP_Oil-FreeTransportation.pdf

Chicago

Lovinsa, Amory B. Oil-Free Transportation. RMI, n.d. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_AIP_Oil-FreeTransportation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lovinsa |first1=Amory B. |title=Oil-Free Transportation |publisher=RMI |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_AIP_Oil-FreeTransportation.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lovinsandoilfree, author = {Lovinsa, Amory B.}, title = {{Oil-Free Transportation}}, institution = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_AIP_Oil-FreeTransportation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }