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Analysis of Google search data found that online searches for electric cars in the UK exploded by 1,600% on September 24 – the day gasoline shortages became a widespread problem across the country.
Google “electric cars”
Update September 29: Carwow, a UK car buying comparison site, contacted Electrek today to let us know that she too, like Carguide (see below), has seen a huge increase in searches on electric car websites.
Compared to the previous week, carwow reports that searches for electric vehicles increased 28% on Friday, 43% on Saturday and 56% on Sunday, September 26.
Sepi Arani, Director of Commerce at carwow, said:
We also saw a huge spike – 94% from last week – of people researching EV ownership and looking at our EV advice center, researching the range of vehicles, asking about charging at home and finding their local charging points.
Carwow says the electric car models that are currently available for purchase in the UK as soon as possible are:
- Tesla model 3
- Jaguar i-pace
- Opel Corsa-e and Mokka-e
- Bmw i3
- Vw e-up
- Volvo XC40
The used car information website Carguide.co.uk found that online searches for electric cars skyrocketed to 16 times the average volume in one day, an all-time high.
Electric vehicle registrations are on an upward trend in the UK, with 7,388 electric vehicle registrations in August alone.
And frankly, it’s going to have to be, considering how the country banned new gasoline cars from 2030.
The gas shortage in the UK is likely to accelerate this trend and also increase public interest in electric cars.
Why is there a shortage of gas?
Residents of the UK are lining up at petrol stations across the country, only to run out, not because of a fuel shortage, but rather a shortage of truck drivers. There are other factors as well, such as the aging UK truck driver population, but this is also heavily influenced by the pandemic and Brexit. The New York Times Remarks:
The Road Haulage Association, a trade association of road transport operators, estimates that Britain faces a deficit of 100,000 drivers. About 20% of them are drivers who left Britain after voting to leave the European Union.
As a result, panic buying among the public ensued.
The UK government is hoping the situation will stabilize in the short term, but it has put 150 military tanker drivers on hold, just in case.
A friend who owns a Mercedes hybrid in Essex and has to travel the country for work told me today that he must have visited no less than 14 gas stations before he finally found fuel.
And for a personal, somewhat humorous account of the tedious search for fuel, check out my former colleague Tim Burrows’ essay today in the Guardian, “In a line for gasoline in Essex, I found an unexpected camaraderie.”
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