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I've recently seen the movie Collapse. They make many claims about oil and an hypothetical global collapse when it runs low.

In this movie, Michael Ruppert says that a simple car tire needs 7 US gallons (~ 26 liters) of oil. He then quickly concludes that the electrical car is joke, because it needs too much oil in order to be built.

Is there any fact or study about this matter? Do we know how much oil is needed for building a tire and a car?

Sklivvz
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Coren
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  • Well, the [rubber manufacturers association](http://www.rma.org/about_rma/rubber_faqs/) states "Approximately seven gallons" (combined between product / energy). So the claim doesn't seem unwarranted. Not sure that is robust enough for an answer, though. And certainly doesn't give an answer for the entire car. – Marc Gravell Mar 19 '12 at 08:23
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    @Marc, it gets more complex when you read that (a) 2 of those gallons are to power the process (and hence are subject to replacement by other power sources) and (b) 70% of rubber is natural (Is it suitable for tyres? Can natural production be increased in an ecologically friendly way?) Also, an electric car, per se, doesn't reduce fossil fuel use *unless* the local electrical power supplies are changed from fossil fuel to other sources. – Oddthinking Mar 19 '12 at 09:17
  • The second part of the question is probably addressed by the graph in t Borror0's answer here: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/351/does-a-car-with-a-hybrid-engine-and-lithium-batteries-pollute-more-than-a-car-wi – Oddthinking Mar 19 '12 at 09:31
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    @Oddthinking yes, fully understood. I did say it wasn't complete enough! Re "reduce", you'd also need to consider the energy efficiency values of the engine+petrol+distribution vs power-station+cables+power-cells+motor, plus have details of fabrication overheads. Reminds me of a similar discussion (re "green" power) at college, which ended abruptly when someone (an arts/language student) stated with a straight face that power stations "catch lightning" - it was hard to continue the discussion due to the laughter. – Marc Gravell Mar 19 '12 at 09:33
  • @Oddthinking BorrorO's answer seems to look at car's consumption, not building costs. – Coren Mar 19 '12 at 10:17
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    @Coren, yes. The key paper he cites covers production, though. – Oddthinking Mar 19 '12 at 10:58
  • The problem with *Collapse* is it relies on a *hypothetical global collapse when [oil] runs low.* It was reported recently there are enough accessible reserves identified to support our current rate of consumption for over 200 years. 7 gallons of Oil is not really that much if you consider that most cars in the US have at least 15 gallon tanks. Seeing as Gasoline is refined oil you have to figure that is more than 15 gallons of oil. – Chad Mar 19 '12 at 13:12
  • Arg. I assume it's US gallons, so it's 26.4 litres. If we are talking about UK gallons, it's 31.8 litres. In any case, it's not 22 litres. And the people wander why we use metric ;-) – Sklivvz Mar 20 '12 at 21:17
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    Re electric cars: Yes, you still have to generate the electricity, but once your car is electric *it doesn't matter* how you generate the electricity: changing from coal to cow-dung to fusion becomes completely transparent.. And Michael Ruppert's argument is illogical: if you stop burning oil to move your cars, you've got *more* of it left to make things with. – Benjol Mar 22 '12 at 12:29
  • Further to my previous comment, I believe that even if you were to use the oil to generate the electricity and then use it in an electric car, it would still be more efficient (http://www.odac-info.org/node/7239) – Benjol Mar 23 '12 at 13:36
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    Benjol makes a good point. If your electric car is "dirty" because of the energy source (it's still less dirty than combustion, even using coal-generated power), as the generating sources become "greener," the electric car automatically does too, without any retrofitting or upgrades needed. Also, it takes seven gallons of "oil." The fact that most tire manufacturers use crude oil does not mean that is the required option for tires. Finally, "it takes too much oil to make an electric car" - doesn't a gas-using car also use that amount in manufacture? Anyway - Nokian makes canola oil tires. – PoloHoleSet Oct 19 '16 at 14:40
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    On crude oil use for synthetic rubber, they use Styrene and Butadiene which is not what you want in petrol or diesel. This means the x liters of crude oil used for rubber might also be used for making petrol, and the heftiest molecules can be used for tarring roads or whatever. – daniel May 15 '17 at 08:36

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