What is it about?
This paper looks at how energy use in transport has changed worldwide from 1800 to 2020 across ships, trains, road vehicles, and aircraft. It shows that transport went through three major energy transitions: from renewable sources to coal, from coal to oil, and now from oil to electricity and biofuels. Over time, vehicles became more efficient, but total energy use grew much faster because transport activity increased. The study uses this long-term history to help understand how transport energy transitions happen and how long they take.
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Why is it important?
This study is important because it uses 200 years of data to show how energy transitions in transport actually happen. It finds that past shifts between energy sources took many decades and that efficiency improvements did not reduce total energy use, because transport demand kept growing. These results provide evidence that energy transitions in transport are slow and that efficiency alone does not guarantee lower energy consumption, offering useful lessons for planning the current shift to low-carbon transport.
Perspectives
This paper is part of the project World Primary-Final-Useful (WPFU) Energy and Exergy Database from 1800 to 2020 The WPFU project develops a long-run global database of primary, final and useful energy and exergy flows across sectors and technologies. The database reconstructs energy conversion chains over the last two centuries in order to analyse technological transitions, efficiency improvements, and the evolution of energy services. By combining historical energy data with societal exergy analysis, the project enables researchers to study the relationships between energy use, efficiency, economic development, and long-term energy transitions. Related papers: Pinto, R., Brockway, P.E., Domingos, T., Sousa, T, 2026. Long run electricity consumption in computing: exponential growth followed by stabilisation due to efficiency gains. iScience, 114876 Tostes, B., Henriques, S., Heun, M. K., T., Brockway, P. B. and Sousa, T, 2025. Global Transport Emissions 1850–2020: Historical Drivers and Lessons for Transport Decarbonization. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 148, 104998. Tostes, B., Heun, M. K., Henriques, S. T., Brockway, P. B. and Sousa, T, 2025. Insights from the evolution of transport technologies, 1800-2020: Energy use, transitions, and efficiency. Applied Energy, 401, Part A, 126561. Tostes, B., Henriques, S. T., Brockway, P. E., Heun, M. K., Domingos, T., Sousa, T, 2024. On the right track? Energy use, carbon emissions, and intensities of world rail transportation, 1840–2020, Applied Energy, 367, 123344. Pinto, R., Henriques, S.T., Brockway, P.E., Heun, M. K., Sousa, T, 2023. The rise and stall of world electricity efficiency: 1900–2017, results and insights for the renewables transition. Energy, 269, 126775. Steenwyk, P., Heun, M. K., Brockway, P.E., Sousa, T, Henriques, S.T, 2022. The Contributions of muscle and machine work to land and labor productivity in world agriculture since 1800. Biophysical Economics and Sustainability, 7: 2.
Assistant Professor Tânia A. Sousa
Instituto Superior Técnico
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Insights from the evolution of transport technologies, 1800–2020: Energy use, transitions, and efficiency, Applied Energy, December 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126561.
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