Gas prices, electric vehicles, and the year ahead. For Marketplace, I'm Nova Saffo, in for David Brancaccio.

We just ended the cheapest December at the gas pump since 2020, according to AAA. That's because the world is producing more crude oil than it needs.

Crude oil prices in 2025 fell 20%. Lower gas prices

are expected to hold over in the year ahead, barring any disasters or disruptive geopolitical

conflicts. Marketplaces Elizabeth Troval has more on what consumers can expect.

U.S. oil companies may not be happy about low prices, but Americans at the pump should be in

luck in the new year.

Consumers should expect gasoline prices to be 10 to 15% lower in 2026 and then we're in 2025.

That's author and energy expert Doug Terrison.

And that should be constructive for economic growth and consumer spending and consumer

behavior overall.

Because U.S. consumers are particularly sensitive to gasoline prices, says Ed Hurs with

University of Houston.

That's something we all see, you know, at least once a week.

And it's something that comes out of our pocket and goes into the gasoline pump.

Unlike, say, our electricity bill, which may get automatically paid in the dead of night.

But it's important to remember what goes down must come up again. These things are cyclical because the cure for

low oil prices is low oil prices. Because low prices tend to increase the demand for crude,

while encouraging oil companies to cut back production. Teresin again. Once supply and demand

start to recalibrate, then inventory will start to recalibrate.

And that's what's really going to be the driver of price.

Terrison says, after we get through this lower price period in 2026, rest assured,

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