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US car buyers are showing a surge in interest in electric vehicles after Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran helped cause a major jump in gasoline prices.
The cost to refuel a vehicle in the US is at its highest level in nearly three years, with the average national price of gas standing at $3.90 a gallon on Friday.
This increase has been driven by the rising global cost of oil in the wake of the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran, a major oil producer. The conflict has resulted in the strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway that conveys around a fifth of the world’s oil, being shut off by Iran.
Drivers in the US have responded to this situation with a surge of fresh interest in EVs, which do not require gas and do not emit the pollution that is dangerously overheating the planet. Searches for electric car models are up by 20% since the attack on Iran started three weeks ago, according to CarEdge, a car-buying platform.
“You saw that within 48 hours of the war starting a spike started – it is directly connected to that news,” said Justin Fischer, an automotive analyst at CarEdge. “If we see these higher gas pries dragging on for a month or more we will see bigger and bigger numbers.”
The rise in gas prices is “at the forefront of buyers minds right now, they are thinking about how do they avoid these fluctuations,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, which has also recorded a jump in the amount of online research activity into EVs by people looking for a new or used car.
“Gas isn’t something you can hide from, it’s right in your face, you see the cost as you fill up each time,” Caldwell added. “It’s a conversational point for a lot of people, too. I live in Los Angeles and there are a lot of memes being sent around by EV drivers on how they are happily watching other people being worried about the gas price right now.”
It’s currently unclear if the new interest in EVs will endure and how it will translate into market share. The US lags behind many other wealthy countries in electric car sales and charging infrastructure, with sales badly hit last year by a Republican spending bill that phased out Joe Biden-era incentives to purchase non-polluting cars.
Trump has also rolled back regulations governing the fuel efficiency and pollution emissions of new cars, helping prompt major automakers to focus even further on the hulking, gas-guzzling SUVs and pick-ups that now dominate US roads. Ford, Nissan and Honda have all recently dropped or scaled back their EV models in the US.
But for people on lower incomes who are most affected by the gas price increase, used EVs are becoming an attractive option. Used Teslas, Chevy Equinoxes and Nissan Leafs are all now becoming affordable to many Americans, Caldwell said.
“You can get a fairly decent used EV for under $25,000, which is pretty decent considering what the new vehicles sell for,” she said. “We are now in an era where there are desirable, inexpensive EVs. I expect they will be snapped up now.’
Hybrid cars, such as Toyota’s Camry and Rav4, are also set to do well among Americans concerned about going fully electric and being stuck without a charging point, Fischer said. “I think hybrids will jump out of the water, we will see a huge spike in sales there,” he said.
New EVs remain expensive compared to gas cars, with EV owners a disproportionately wealthy slice of the US population. Just 7.8% of all car sales last year were electric, down slightly on 2024.
The Trump administration has sought to further stall EV growth by halting separate fuel efficiency standards in California. Last week, amid surging gas prices, Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said the administration is suing California over “oppressive, expensive electric vehicle mandates (that) drive up costs for American consumers and violate federal law”.
However, electric cars are making major headway in the rest of the world. EVs account for one in five new sales globally, with some countries almost eliminating the need for new gas cars – in January, just seven traditional petrol cars were sold in Norway.
“American automakers realize EVs are definitely the long-term strategy but they can make a lot of money in the short term with SUVs and pick-up trucks,” said Caldwell.
“A lot of the technology for EVs is developed in the US but China is very good at scaling and making them inexpensive. The policy changing every four years in the White House doesn’t help, either – car companies can’t operate like that.”
Don Francis, president of the EV Club of the South, said many people are still hesitant to purchase an EV due to concerns about their range. “There is interest but people aren’t being pushed over the edge yet,” he said. “There may be a tipping point, though, if these gas prices remain high.”
Francis said that he has two sons in the military and wants the US to achieve “energy independence” to avoid conflicts related to oil. But Francis doesn’t fault Trump, who he voted for three times, for the war and its ramifications.
“My one greatest concern has been if an Islamic terrorist organization got its hands on nuclear weapon we will be in serious trouble,” he said. “Do I like everything (Trump’s) done? No. Do I like most of what he’s done? Yes.”
