Matt Cleevely, the owner of Cleevely Electric Vehicles in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, which specialises in used EVs, had a surge of inquiries over the weekend and on Monday morning from customers citing the fuel crisis as a reason for switching to electric. And as an EV driver himself, he admitted feeling a little smug as he drove past queues of 20 cars outside petrol stations over the weekend in his Tesla. He said “a lot of electric car owners will be chuffed to bits this last week” being able to plug in their cars at home. The EV market is no longer the preserve of innovators and early adopters, he said, with the most popular models the Nissan Leaf, Volkswagen ID 3 and Jaguar I-Pace.īen Strzalko, the owner of Electric Cars UK in Leyland, Lancashire, said that as a small business it would take a few months to feel the knock-on effect of the fuel crisis on sales.īut every time there are problems with petrol or diesel, he said they acted as “one more tick for people making that transition to electric cars”. “People were using it as ‘this is the moment where I’m not going to put this off any longer’.” “I’ve now got trade-in cars with no petrol to move them.”Īlong with existing factors such as the expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone, the fuel crisis has proved to be another trigger point, he said. “Saturday was bonkers but Friday even surpassed that, it was very strange,” said Miller, who founded his company four years ago.

While scenes of chaos play out at petrol stations across the country amid shortages, for many electric vehicle (EV) dealers the fuel crisis has led to an unexpected surge in inquiries and sales.ĮVA England, a non-profit representing new and prospective EV drivers, reports a rise in electric car inquiries and in interest at EV dealers, particularly in the last week. “But Friday was one of those moments where people said, ‘Do you know what, this is a sign that we need to go electric’.” “People buy electric cars for environmental reasons, for cost-saving reasons and because the technology’s great,” he said. This week the diary is booked up with test drives and the business is low on stock. As petrol stations in parts of the UK started running out of fuel on Friday, business at Martin Miller’s electric car dealership in Guildford, Surrey, started soaring.Īfter what ended up being his company EV Experts busiest day ever, interest does not appear to be dying down.

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