The disappearance of internal-combustion engines is far from inevitable today, but several groups and governments are now predicting when the last gasoline vehicles will be sold.

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The latest prediction comes from a particularly unlikely source: Shell Oil Company, one of the largest petroleum producers in the world.

The company predicts in its latest report that petroleum-powered cars could be nearly gone by 2070.

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The concept is part of Shell’s ‘New Lens Scenarios’, reports Autoblog Green. They are forward-looking predictions that help the company decide how to operate over the coming years.

Shell is actually no stranger to such scenario building, and 2013 actually marks the 40th year of this policy. This year, Shell has developed two New Lens Scenarios, which it terms ‘Mountains’ and ‘Oceans’.

Each predicts a future based on two possible paths the global economy may take over the coming decades, when affected by technological developments and the global population.

Changing pressures

In both scenarios, that global population is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. The future could be […]