Somebody on this thread said something about the oil drying up. Since crude oil – that stuff that is pumped right out of the ground – is made up of mostly carbon waste, I contend that we will never run out of crude oil. About two years ago an MIT graduate in PA figured out how to recompose a form of non-refined crude from carbon waste materials like used tires and discarded plastics. He actually has a patent on the process. That same process is now being used to assist in the production of bio-fuels (not just biodeisel) and other everyday products.

This planet produces carbon waste by the megaton on a daily basis. That is how all those subterranean oil fields came into existence in the first place, and that is why we will never run out of carbon based fuels as long as this planet exists and we wasteful Humans inhabit it.

Now, as for the future of the auto industry . . . It will evolve until we find a way for personal transportation bypass the mere automobile.

And that is just my not-so-humble opinion.

Neither I nor the market is that worried it seems.

If you're talking about a natural gas converter, yes, that's already around if you have a local natural gas company already supplying it to you (and importantly, a natural gas car. Honda used to make one out in California, I don't think any of the American companies manufacture them right now. They're a huge hit in Germany right now).

You shouldn't need a government mandate to induce it anyway. All that would be needed for that to change is more people to buy CNG powered cars. Probably when the costs of oil and gasoline increase to some substantial level people will do that in greater numbers. Unless there's some other fuel that's cheaper (like some bio-diesel or some variety of ethanol not currently made in America: aka, sugar fuels made in Brazil).

There's several American companies trying to get government sponsorship to switch over to natural gas for example. I have no problem switching over to that as a primary transportation fuel, but I don't see why it should need government money to implement. If anything, removing the government money already involved in oil, ethanol, coal, and other energy supplies would be more helpful than giving more to some new format.