Why nobody will own a car in 2030: Self-driving, electric ride-shares will spell the end for traditional automobiles

Cars will die out by 2030 as electric self-driving car shares take over our roads, according to a new report. 

Ninety-five per cent of miles travelled in the US will happen in autonomous vehicles owned by fleets rather than individuals in just over a decade, researchers found.

This new technology will be up to ten times cheaper than buying a new car and will bring an end to more than 100 years of individual vehicle ownership.

'We are on the cusp of one of the fastest, deepest, most consequential disruptions of transportation in history,' said Tony Seba, co-author of the report, produced by RethinkX, an independent research group based in California.

The report found Autonomous Electric Vehicles (A-EVs) will be owned by companies providing Transport as a Service (TaaS) by 2030 which will make up 60 per cent of vehicles on US roads.

As fewer cars travel more miles, the number of passenger vehicles on American roads will drop from 247 million in 2020 to 44 million in 2030, the report said.

Authors of the study claim this move is driven by economics and users will abandon their personal cars because it no longer makes sense financially.

They predict using electric vehicles will be between two to four times cheaper than operating existing vehicles by 2021. 

They will also have a vehicle lifetime of more than 500,000 miles and far lower maintenance, energy, finance and insurance costs, researchers say.

The average American household will save $5,600 (£4,333) per year by giving up its gas-powered car and travelling by autonomous vehicles, authors say.

'While these projections may seem radical because they differ from mainstream and incumbent industry projections, they are really quite conservative because they are based on assumptions that in some cases have already been bested by new technologies and plummeting prices,' said Bryan Hansel, CEO of Chanje Energy.

As demand for new vehicles plummets, 70 per cent fewer passenger cars and trucks will be manufactured each year.