With hundreds of fuel stations across Australia reportedly running out of fuel due to panic buying, motorists are searching in droves for electric vehicles to potentially buy.
As a result of the United States and Israel’s attack on Iran, global oil prices have skyrocketed and led to fears of shortages in Australia, which has led to panic buying in some regions, leaving stations without fuel to serve.
According to Pickles, the increased prices and lower supply of fuel has led to a big increase in users of its online platform searching for EVs to buy, with search activity up 111 per cent from February 24 to March 21, compared to the three weeks prior.
While it hasn’t detailed whether actual purchases have increased to tie in with the jump in searches, the firm says there’s also been a 98 per cent increase in EVs being added to its user’s watchlists, and a surge of 64 per cent new visitors to its website.
Though not an EV-only brand due to the number of plug-in hybrids it also sells, BYD is reportedly Pickles’ leading carmaker for EV searches, increasing by 123 per cent across the period, an all-time high.
It’s yet to be seen whether the fuel crisis has had an impact on the new- and used-car markets so far.
Last month, deliveries of EVs were up 95.9 per cent on February 2025, though this was largely driven by a big month for Tesla, while hybrid vehicle deliveries were down 9.6 per cent due to poor supply of the popular RAV4.
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