The Energy Department published a report titled, “The Transforming Mobility Ecosystem: Enabling an Energy-Efficient Future.”

Over the next decade, the transportation sector is poised for rapid change, propelled toward a new mobility future by strong technology currents and the confluence of prevailing megatrends. These major forces hold the promise of shaping a new mobility future – one that unlocks tremendous economic value, provides unprecedented gains in safety, offers affordable and equal accessibility, and enables the transition to energy-efficient transport of people and goods. They come, however, with cautionary viewpoints on energy consumption of the entire sector, necessitating the need to carefully guide the emergent future.

This report examines four possible mobility futures that could exist in 2050 and the positive and negative impacts of these futures on energy consumption and the broader economy.