\nLast updated:<\/p>\n
05 Jun. 2026\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a07th\u00a0June will mark the 100th day of the conflict between the US and Iran,\u00a0which started on\u00a0the\u00a028th\u00a0February. During this\u00a0time\u00a0the price of oil has increased\u00a0as a result of\u00a0disruptions to supply through the Strait of Hormuz, driving up the cost of petrol and diesel at the pump\u00a0in the UK.\u00a0Petrol is now 27p a litre higher than it was on the eve of the conflict, while diesel has jumped by\u00a043p a litre.\u00a0[1]<\/p>\n
New analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has found that\u00a0these\u00a0price rises\u00a0have added \u00a31.7bn to the cost of\u00a0running\u00a0the nation\u2019s petrol and diesel cars in the\u00a0first 100 days\u00a0of the US-Iran conflict.\u00a0And this means that, in this time, the UK\u2019s\u00a0diesel car drivers\u00a0have paid\u00a0\u00a3255 more to\u00a0fuel their cars\u00a0than if they had been driving an EV. Recent industry data has shown an EV sales surge in the UK (mirroring Europe and other countries) [2]\u00a0as drivers try to reduce their fuel bills \u2013 more than one in four (27%) cars sold in May were electric.\u00a0[3]<\/p>\n
Since the conflict started petrol car drivers have paid \u00a3175\u00a0more than\u00a0if\u00a0they\u00a0had been\u00a0driving an EV. Collectively, cars running on petrol and diesel\u00a0have cost\u00a0over\u00a0\u00a36.3bn more\u00a0to\u00a0fuel\u00a0in the last 100 days\u00a0than if they\u00a0had\u00a0been EVs.<\/p>\n
Colin Walker, Head of Transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith parts of the car industry calling for a\u00a0slowdown\u00a0of EV policy, the casualty would\u00a0be\u00a0regular families\u00a0being\u00a0stuck with more expensive petrol,\u00a0diesel\u00a0and hybrid cars\u00a0in the midst of\u00a0a\u00a0cost-of-living\u00a0crisis. The numbers speak for themselves\u00a0\u2013 the savings that come from driving an EV\u00a0were already significant before the war started;\u00a0the\u00a0closure of\u00a0the Strait of Hormuz\u00a0has made them even more so. EV policy has helped drive competition between manufacturers to the point where\u00a0both\u00a0new\u00a0[4]\u00a0and second-hand EVs [5] are cheaper than their petrol equivalents\u00a0–\u00a0and\u00a0with\u00a0pump prices high, sales are surging.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite industry claims to the contrary, policy targets are being met, and any further attempts to water\u00a0them\u00a0down risks incentivising manufacturers to sell more PHEVs which cost more to buy\u00a0than an EV,\u00a0and significantly more to run that their manufacturers claim.\u00a0Unlike EVs, they\u00a0are not an effective\u00a0answer to\u00a0people\u2019s\u00a0cost-of-living\u00a0concerns. Watering\u00a0the targets\u00a0down would also mean fewer EVs on the second-hand market\u00a0where most\u00a0of us buy our cars,\u00a0and\u00a0where regular families can save hundreds of pounds, even thousands,\u00a0a year on their driving bills.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With no clear end to the conflict\u00a0in sight, if prices were to remain at\u00a0their\u00a0current\u00a0elevated\u00a0levels until\u00a0the\u00a0war\u00a0had been running for a year,\u00a0the\u00a0additional costs\u00a0of running the nation\u2019s petrol and diesel cars, compared to EVs,\u00a0would be\u00a0over\u00a0\u00a323bn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last updated: 05 Jun. 2026 The\u00a07th\u00a0June will mark the 100th day of the conflict between the US and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[4139,25320,154,34,6499],"class_list":["post-147629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-climate","tag-debate","tag-energy","tag-iran","tag-net-zero"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116701739313205447","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}