Sasol's fuel business sentenced to electric chair
Shift to electric cars puts petrol and diesel on endangered list
With rapid advances in battery technology and increasing pressure to phase out the internal combustion engine, the future of energy companies such as Sasol has become nearly impossible to predict. Established in 1950 and credited as the first oil-from-coal company in the world, one of the JSE's biggest players may be facing an existential crisis. Over the past 67 years it has diversified away from its energy focus and broadened its chemical interests, but with the future of transport likely to be dominated by electric power, Sasol's business model is set for a fundamental shift. Professor Anton Vosloo of the faculty of engineering at Stellenbosch University, who spent most of his career at Sasol, sees developments in battery technology as perhaps one of the biggest risks to his former employer. But the Sasol veteran of 29 years said the company had time to make the necessary changes to position itself for a future where it is less reliant on coal and oil. Elon Musk's Tesla is due to...
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