General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra stands next to a autonomous Chevrolet Bolt electric car Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016, in Detroit. General Motors has started testing fully autonomous vehicles on public roads around its technical center in suburban Detroit.
Credit: AP/Paul Sancya

“General Motors believes in an all-electric future,” Mark Reuss, GM’s head of global product development, announced in a corporate press release Monday.

These are remarkable words for a company that has become a global behemoth over the past century by making and selling tens of millions of cars, SUVs, and light trucks that run on liquid fossil fuels. When you add in plans from huge, fast-growing markets like China and India to quickly shift to EVs and end the sale of petrol cars, it’s clear that upending the car market will also upend the oil market.

Reuss said GM would accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), with two new EV models coming out in 2018, and “at least” another 18 by 2023. On the same day, Ford Motor Co. announced it would […]