Why 'pump anxiety' as petrol prices soar promped surge in EV sales | FT Tech

Rising petrol prices and 'pump anxiety' caused by the Middle East conflict have led to a surge in consumer interest in electric vehicles. You can enable subtitles (captions) in the video player Donald Trump's Middle East war and rising fuel prices have had one unexpected outcome, surging interest in cars that fill up like this. Range anxiety was one of the main reasons people were put off from buying an EV. But it's possible a new pump anxiety is causing a surge in EV test drives, advert views, and sales. It definitely is surging. We've seen quite a dramatic increase in both interest, and that converting into sales as well. Since the Iran war, we've seen a 36 per cent increase in overall leads. But actually, for our direct-to-consumer business, we're currently trading at closer to 80 per cent growth in actual orders, versus the average of the year so far. But not everyone believes that this surge in interest is related to fuel prices. I don't subscribe to the thought that the Middle Eastern conflict and the rising fuel price is what's driven our performance in first quarter. Generally, if you've got the products in the market, more and more people are considering electric vehicles. The Middle Eastern conflict is immediately affecting oil prices, and that will ultimately affect electricity prices in the future, maybe not by the same degree. So we're not hanging our hat on the differential between petrol pricing and electricity pricing widening. What we have to do is go to market with desirable products that give customers the confidence about the ability to charge, and range, and they're easy to live with, and the infrastructure is getting better. a dollar in my old blue jeans. In this advert, BYD has already emphasised the impact of rising fuel prices. Every tiny treasure Gonna add up now. Hey! So a car like this one has a battery of 82.5 kilowatt hours, which should give a range of about 280 miles on a single charge. That means if you're using a cheaper overnight tariff, it probably costs around £6 to fill up. Compare that to a similar sized petrol car, and the same number of miles is going to cost at least £40. The upfront cost of an EV is still about a fifth more expensive than a petrol vehicle, but the overall prices of EVs have been dropping significantly. Kia has launched the EV2 at less than 25k, and told me the requests for its test drives for EVs have increased 84 per cent since February of last year. But fuel pricing is not the only reason for buying an EV. There is now a wider variety of products, and improved charging infrastructure could mean longer-term interest in EVs, even if petrol prices come down eventually.