By Nick Carey, Gilles Guillaume and Marie Mannes<\/p>\n
London\/Paris\/Stockholm \u2014 Rising fuel prices driven by the Iran war are boosting demand for new and used electric vehicles across Europe, industry data shared with Reuters shows, though some executives warn interest could fade if petrol costs fall.<\/p>\n
Industry experts say improvements in charging infrastructure and a wave of more affordable models \u2014 including from Chinese automakers \u2014 are helping make EVs more mainstream, supporting demand.<\/p>\n
The US and Iran have agreed to an extended ceasefire, but shipping disruptions mean oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz may take weeks to normalise, with fuel prices likely to remain elevated for months.<\/p>\n
Data provided to Reuters by research group New Automotive and industry group E-Mobility Europe show new EV registrations rose 34% year-on-year in May across 17 markets covering more than 90% of EU and European Free Trade Association car sales.<\/p>\n
Fully electric models accounted for almost one in four new registrations in those markets.<\/p>\n
Renault\u2019s EV order book has risen by 50% in some countries since the Iran war began in late February, CEO Francois Provost told Reuters last week, though he predicted growth \u201cwill decrease\u201d if fuel prices fall.<\/p>\n
Ford\u2019s Europe chief, Jim Baumbick, said the war has \u201cincreased customers\u2019 interest\u201d in EVs but cautioned against seeing it as a lasting shift.<\/p>\n
Interest stimulated<\/p>\n
The conflict has come as vehicle makers roll out cheaper EVs in Europe, addressing one of the main barriers to adoption \u2014 higher upfront costs compared with combustion-engine cars.<\/p>\n
Chinese automakers are expanding beyond larger models into smaller hatchbacks for Europe, with BYD launching its Dolphin G in Berlin last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumer interest in EVs is clearly stimulated by low-cost, very good Chinese cars arriving on the market,\u201d said Andy Palmer, a former Nissan executive who launched the mass-market Leaf EV.<\/p>\n
The supply of used EVs is also rising, with strong demand. Online marketplace OLX said sales leads for Chinese brands in France jumped more than fourfold year-on-year in May.<\/p>\n
German new and used online marketplace Carwow said EV interest \u2014 measured by configurations and purchase enquiries \u2014 has stabilised at 70% to 75%, up from around 40% earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis development has long since evolved from a short-term effect to a sustainable trend,\u201d said Philipp Sayler von Amende, managing director of Carwow Germany.<\/p>\n
Used EVs are also relatively cheap. Price cuts led by Tesla in 2023 sharply reduced resale values, though prices are now edging higher as demand strengthens.<\/p>\n
Danish used-car platform Bilbasen expects used EV prices to rise 10% this year.<\/p>\n
For now, used EVs are cheaper than comparable combustion-engine models.<\/p>\n
In Britain, two- to four-year-old EVs sell for about 33% of their original price versus 52% for fossil-fuel cars, according to dealer services firm Cox Automotive.<\/p>\n
Cox\u2019s insight director Philip Nothard said a growing supply of affordable new and used EVs should sustain demand even if fuel prices ease.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market should stabilise,\u201d he said. \u201cI very much doubt that we\u2019ll see a downturn.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nick Carey, Gilles Guillaume and Marie Mannes London\/Paris\/Stockholm \u2014 Rising fuel prices driven by the Iran war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13063],"tags":[21459,26248,5217,73,26247,2004,538,26249,1783,12198,1583,26250],"class_list":["post-37583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-renault","tag-affordable-evs","tag-electric-vehicle-sales","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-europe","tag-european-ev-demand","tag-evs","tag-fuel","tag-fuel-price-impact","tag-oil-price","tag-renault","tag-sales","tag-used-ev-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}