In India, a US$2,500 car is unveiled to tap that market of 1.1 billion people.
In Canada, a CIBC World Markets analyst is predicting gasoline costs of $1.50 per litre in the near future.
The report, penned by CIBC World Markets chief economist Jeff Rubin, cites surging consumption in developing economies* combined with increasingly rapid depletion of existing oilfields and delays in getting new oil supplies on stream.
* And that's before the miracle car, so imagine five or so years from now if millions more in the developing world are driving gasoline-driven autos.
The widening demand-supply gap could push crude oil prices as high as US$150 a barrel by 2012, said Rubin, who in 2005 was among the first analysts to predict the $100-a-barrel oil price that materialized this month.
Rubin suggested global supply could slide below U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates by as much as eight million barrels a day within five years.
That prediction was echoed by Bob Tebbutt, a commodities watcher and vice-president at Peregrine Financial Group. But he said gasoline prices were likely to climb even more than Rubin's projected 50-cent increase.
"Only $1.50?'' he said. "My god, it's gone up 15 cents over the last five months.''
While we bemoan the pocketbook cost of rising fuel prices, the prospect of yet more cars on the road in the developing world will have some serious climate implications. From the CTV.ca story:
In 2005, vehicles in India released 219 million tons of carbon dioxide.
By 2035, the number is projected to jump to 1,467 million tons -- supported by the expanding middle-class and the rise of low-cost cars, says the Asian Development Bank.
"The cheaper and cheaper vehicles become, the quicker those pollution levels will increase,'' Jamie Leather, a transport specialist with the bank, told The Associated Press.