You have to have an option that is better than oil, otherwise it wouldn't work. Imagine if car fuel prices were being kept artificially high, how are you going to compete? If you invest in something new, it has to be better than oil. We're lucky in this case that electric cars have numerous benefits, but suppose for a second that they didn't exist. It's possible to run a car on natural gas, coal, etc... but there are hugh costs to competing... investment in new vehicles and investment in service stations and fuel transport being some of the biggest costs. And who's to stop the oil cartel waiting for you to launch, lowering their prices to undercut you, waiting for the competition to fail, then jacking prices back up again?