Electric vehicle giant Tesla Motors' latest quarterly report showed weakening sales. The regional boss of Porsche says EVs are the future, but petrol cars will continue to chug along.
In any case, one thing is clear: battery-powered cars are leading the race when it comes to the future of transport.
Petrol-powered vehicles have been the standard since the late 1880s but never before has its dominance been as seriously challenged as it is being today.
And it is not only battery-powered vehicles that aim to overtake gas guzzlers: other options are emerging but each with its own pros and cons.
"There is no single, universal successor to the internal combustion engine," Jennifer Considine, an honorary senior research fellow at Scotland's University of Dundee, told The National. "What is emerging instead is a portfolio of solutions."
These include battery-electric systems for light-duty, high-utilisation urban use; hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels for heavier, longer-range applications; and, crucially, advanced biofuels and e-fuels that "allow us to decarbonise the vast existing engine fleet rather than simply discard it", she said.
Indeed, internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles remain the favoured mode of road transport but there are a lot of factors trying to convince motorists to shift to other forms of power sources.
The key components of a petrol-fuelled car.
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