SpaceX is targeting a $75 billion raise at a fixed IPO price of $135 per share—more than twice Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion record from 2019 , OilPrice.com noted. The symbolism cuts deeper than the numbers. When Aramco listed in 2019, it redefined what 'big' meant in equity markets. On June 12, 2026, SpaceX will make it look like a warm-up act , according to FXEmpire. For nearly seven years, oil held the IPO crown. Tonight it loses it to rockets and satellites.
The timing is no accident. While SpaceX prepares to list, the energy system that made Aramco the world's most valuable company is showing cracks on the demand side. Not from supply shocks or geopolitical drama—those have kept $71.50/bbl and $75.20/bbl elevated, per market data—but from something quieter and more structural. People are buying different things.
Can Electric Vehicles Really Move Markets This Fast?
Britain offers the clearest answer. Battery electric vehicles captured 27.1% of the UK new car market in May 2026, while registrations rose 31.2% year-on-year to 41,346 vehicles , according to New AutoMotive. 86,120 new electric cars were registered in March 2026—a new UK record , the RAC reported.
The catalyst? Oil prices. Colin Walker, head of Transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: "These figures come against the backdrop of the Iran war and rapidly rising petrol and diesel prices, fuelling a surge of interest in electric vehicles" . Motorpoint, a London-listed used car supermarket, told City AM it had seen EV sales more than double in recent months—what the company called "a watershed moment" for the car industry.
The shift is self-reinforcing. Higher fuel costs push buyers toward EVs. More EVs on the road reduce gasoline demand. Lower demand eventually pressures refining margins, which can paradoxically keep pump prices elevated in the short term as refiners cut runs. The UK now has over 2 million fully electric cars on the road, around 5.9% of the roughly 34 million cars , Zapmap data show.
China's experience suggests where this leads. China's combined consumption of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel of almost 8.1 million barrels per day in 2024 was 2.5% below 2021 levels , the IEA reported. The total electric vehicle fleet is already displacing over 1 million barrels per day in implied oil demand—equivalent to roughly the daily oil production of Oman. That level is likely to rise by around 600,000 barrels per day over the next 12 months , according to Rhodium Group analysis.
Gasoline demand in May 2025 fell to roughly the same level as May of 2022, when Shanghai was almost entirely locked down under zero-COVID , Rhodium noted. The difference: no lockdowns this time. Just 12 million new energy vehicle sales annually and a transport fleet that's pivoting to power-based energy faster than forecasters expected.
Why Are Electricity Bills Rising in States That Promised Competition?
The irony is sharp. As transport electrifies to escape volatile oil markets, households are discovering that electricity deregulation—sold a generation ago as a path to lower prices—has delivered the opposite.
In the past five years alone, the generation portion of the standard service residential electric bill in Columbus, Ohio, has increased by 110% , according to research from The Ohio State University's Energy Markets and Policy Group. U.S. electricity rates have risen 17% in four years, from 15.04¢/kWh in 2022 to 17.65¢/kWh in 2026. Year-over-year increases were +6.4% (2023), +3.0% (2024), +5.0% (2025), and +2.0% (2026, through Feb) , per Electric Choice data.
The problem, Ohio State researchers found, isn't competition—it's the lack of it. The process which sets the default supply rate is not very competitive. Less competition means the middleman companies bidding in those auctions can bid, and win, higher prices—raising electric bills and increasing their profit margin . MIT research reached a similar conclusion: Electric deregulation in the U.S. has resulted in increased prices from market power, and this effect has dominated cost efficiencies .
Energy deregulation promised lower prices through competition. But instead, consumers got an army of middleman marketers. And, those middlemen have been taking their cues from a bidding process that often has too few participants to keep prices low , the Ohio State study concluded.
The timing couldn't be worse. This sustained climb reflects fuel cost inflation, grid modernization investments, and surging demand from data centers and electric vehicle adoption , according to Electric Choice. EVs were supposed to insulate drivers from oil price shocks. Instead, they're exposing them to a different set of market failures in electricity.
