One of the unintended consequences of the US-Israel war against Iran is that it is boosting the sales of electric cars.
While Trump has been a key advocate for Big Oil, it seems that the latest war is too much for those who depend on their cars.
US electric vehicle sales took a nasty dip when Trump cancelled subsidies in a bid to encourage users to return to petrol. However, EV sales have bounced back as drivers stared at pump prices.
First-quarter data for 2026 show that used EV sales were 12 per cent higher than at the same time last year and 17 per cent higher than the previous quarter.
One factor likely helping push US buyers toward these cars is high gas prices, which recently topped $4 a gallon for the first time in four years.
The same applies to the UK, with electric car sales hitting a record in March at 86,120 vehicles sold. The French online used-car retailer Aramisauto reported its share of EV sales nearly doubled from 16 February to 9 March, rising to 12.7 per cent from 6.5 per cent, while sales of fuelled models slid to 28 per cent from 34 per cent and diesel fell to 10 per cent from 14 per cent.
Germany’s biggest online car market is watching clicks swing hard towards batteries. Mobile.de told Reuters that EV searches have tripled since the start of March, from 12 per cent to 36 per cent, while dealers got 66 per cent more enquiries for used EVs than in February.
South Korea’s numbers jumped too, with EV registrations more than doubling in March compared to the prior year, helped by rising fuel prices and government subsidies. When the maths and the monthly budget line up, brand loyalty suddenly gets quiet.
New Zealand had its own spike, with more than 1,000 EVs registered in the week ending 22 March, almost double the week before. New Zealand’s transport minister, Chris Bishop, pointed to it as the country’s biggest week for EV registrations since the end of 2023.
In the US, Bloomberg says the charging build-out is moving faster than the grumbling suggests. It reports 605 high-speed EV charging stations switched on in the first three months of 2025, “a 33 per cent increase over the year-earlier period,” based on its analysis of federal data.
Bloomberg says one EV infrastructure platform claims better chargers are finally persuading drivers to plug in rather than scoff. Nothing sells a new habit like reliability, especially when petrol starts acting like a luxury product.
