The Trump administration has done everything it can to slow the growth of EVs. But in an ironic twist, Trump’s war in Iran is boosting the EV industry globally.
After the U.S. attacked Iran in late February and the price of crude oil soared, global EV sales also surged. A new report from Ember, an energy think tank that is tracking EV sales in 56 countries, found that 49 of them have hit new records for EVs this year.
Between March and August, EV sales in New Zealand grew 165% compared with the previous six months. In Chile, they were up 124%, and in India, 58%.
In many countries, the growth was also supported by new policies. In Germany, for example, pro-EV policies that rolled out last year were in place as fuel prices rose. By August, as Germany’s gas prices reached a record high of around $8.52 per gallon, the country’s battery electric vehicle sales made up 27.5% of total car sales—a 50% increase over the same month last year.
“First you had fuel efficiency standards—which basically means a lot of manufacturers suddenly started bringing out more affordable electric car models at the start of this year—and then there was also some more direct policy support in Germany,” says Euan Graham, senior energy analyst at Ember.
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