Data released by consulting firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) on Tuesday showed that rising fuel costs pushed sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in Europe to a record high in March, and pushed global sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to increase for the first time this year.
Since the outbreak of the conflict in Iran on February 28, governments around the world have set fuel price caps to protect car owners from soaring oil prices. The conflict disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a route that carries about 20% of the world's oil supplies.
According to data from BMI, global new car registrations of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles increased by 3% year-on-year in March, reaching more than 1.7 million vehicles; registrations in Europe increased by 37%, reaching a record high of nearly 540,000 vehicles.
"Much of this can be attributed to rising gas prices," said BMI data manager Charles Lester.
Lester added that the strongest growth was in countries with the largest increases in energy prices, including Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam and Thailand, which together drove a 79% increase in EV registrations outside the three main markets of China, Europe and North America.
BMI data shows that the registration volume of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the Chinese market exceeded 850,000 units in March, a year-on-year decrease of 14%.
In North America, registrations of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles fell 30% year-on-year in March to 121,500, marking the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year declines since the end of the U.S. electric vehicle tax credit and the Trump administration's proposal to further cut carbon dioxide emissions standards.
"This is the highest monthly sales since the tax credit ended, but the reality is sales have declined," Lester said.
