EV demand up 50% in France and Germany since Iran war

(reuters.com)

96 points | by a_paddy 4 hours ago

7 comments

  • kieranmaine 1 hour ago
    Since the article is about Renault, I wanted to mention their EVs use motors with no rare-earth metals.

    https://www.renaultgroup.com/en/magazine/energy-and-powertra...

  • Tharre 1 hour ago
    And demand will probably go up a lot further still. Right now fuel prices are kept artificially low by every country releasing their strategic reserves, but these will run out at some point.

    Europe is heading into the worst energy crisis since at least the 1970s, possibly worse. And yet very little is happening to prepare for it. Definitely some fun times ahead.

    • vitally3643 54 minutes ago
      I think perhaps the huge surge in EV demand has something to do with preparing for the energy crisis
    • onlypassingthru 1 hour ago
      The US is on pace to run out of its strategic reserve in ~2 weeks.
      • dylan604 45 minutes ago
        Four weeks ago, California received the last of the shipments coming from the Strait. Everyone said CA only has on hand six weeks of supply. There was a bunch of panic baiting posts at the time. I haven't seen any suggesting that the supply is coming to an end, but maybe I've missed stories of resupplies coming in to the west coast??
      • energy123 34 minutes ago
        Isn't the US self-sufficient in both oil and natural gas? Most impacted is East/South Asia, second most is Europe, then US is the least impacted by far, although the US will experience inflation on imported goods.
      • thunky 1 hour ago
        I don't think that's true, but if it is then Iran would be foolish to make a deal right now.
        • drnick1 47 minutes ago
          Iran has no choice but to make a deal, if they don't want their country turned into a parking lot. With complete air superiority, taking their power plants and a few bridges would lead to complete economic collapse as seen in Cuba.
    • sourcegrift 51 minutes ago
      Frankly you sound like a Russian shill who will then go on to say that Ukraine fight is not Europe's just like Iran war is not an American concern (I agree that trump shouldn't have gone in there) but the two situations are not equivalent.
      • Tharre 34 minutes ago
        I don't know what kind of straw man you built up in your head, but I can assure you I don't believe in any of that.
  • roxolotl 2 hours ago
    It’s so wild to me to make a multiyear purchasing decision based upon recent events. My next car will be an EV not suggesting it’s a bad decision however I’m still blown away by statistics like this.
    • belviewreview 11 minutes ago
      "make a multiyear purchasing decision based upon recent events" You have this all backwards. The fact is that for many decades petroleum is an unreliable energy source due to geopolitical factors, but people have been pretending that was not the case. What has happened in the last two months is people have finally realized the long-term truth.
    • pyrale 1 hour ago
      > It’s so wild to me to make a multiyear purchasing decision based upon recent events.

      Recent events? Russia going rogue and the US going haywire both happened a decade ago at least. Those are two major suppliers of fossil fuel for Europe. The current trend was bound to happen, it only required time for the industry to pivot.

      • praxulus 1 hour ago
        We're commenting on the fact that demand has surged in the last few months. Russian and American behavior from a decade ago didn't (directly) cause that.
        • dylan604 37 minutes ago
          There was definitely a build up. Trump was held back from being Trump in the first term. Even with that, there was no recourse for any of the actions that he took. There were also the court decisions that happened in between terms. So this term, he naturally feels no need to hold back. It is unlikely this Trump term would happen had his first not happened.
      • axus 39 minutes ago
        Recent consequences, the events began long ago :)
    • Jtsummers 2 hours ago
      It moves up people's purchasing plans. If you were expecting to replace your vehicle in the next two years because of performance degradation, and now your fuel costs are substantially higher, then a purchase today might make more sense than your original plan.
      • nielsbot 1 hour ago
        Of even if people are just considering and EV as compared to an ICE car they may think "you know what, who knows when fuel prices will come down? maybe I just switch now!"
    • 2muchtime 2 hours ago
      The thing is a lot of people might be right at the tipping point of buying an EV and then some news like this comes out and it pushes them over the line.

      I feel EVs at this moment are right at the level of “I’m gonna buy a new car, but maybe I’ll wait for the one after before I jump into an EV”. Better batteries (solid state), better charging speeds and more fast charger availability seem to have a large group of people waiting.

      • seanmcdirmid 57 minutes ago
        It’s not a bad idea. I bought in 2022 and the range of newer EVs is already a lot more than mine. But I really enjoy my car and don’t have much pressure to take so many roadtrips.

        What I can’t see doing is buying a new ICE now. If you just want something to hold you over a few years, buy used or lease.

      • cicko 57 minutes ago
        That makes no sense to me. I've had an EV for five years and right now the infrastructure is fantastic in comparison. There are chargers everywhere, they're fast enough, and the prices are reasonable. The batteries are also quite large. I see absolutely no reason to buy an IC car any more. Many people have solar panels installed, making the commute practically free.
      • jimnotgym 1 hour ago
        Renault seems to have made a sensibly priced range with some classic styles too. Familiar cars but with EV, rather than early adopter cars like the Nissan Leaf or weird tech bro cars.
        • vrganj 1 hour ago
          The Renault 5 is selling like crazy.

          Makes sense why, reasonable price, good design, made in Europe EV.

          It's what a lot of people have been waiting for.

          • deeringc 1 hour ago
            You're not wrong - I see about 10 of these a day driving around. And that's a car model that is only about a year old. It's selling like hot cakes.
    • firegodjr 2 hours ago
      I'm well aware things can change, but having my everyday commute costs generally decoupled from geopolitics seems nice
      • Gibbon1 1 hour ago
        Yeah buying an EV instead of a gas car is a hedge that doesn't cost much. There is an asymmetry in the upside and downside risk. The downside risk is all on gas with no upside. No downside for the EV.
    • cromka 28 minutes ago
      > It’s so wild to me to make a multiyear purchasing decision based upon recent events.

      Even wilder to project other peoples decisions so naively

    • davis 45 minutes ago
      > based upon recent events

      Climate change has been in the zeitgeist for decades now. Pretty sure many people are cognizant of this and want to move away from fossil fuels. This is just a boost to do so.

      • dmix 35 minutes ago
        That and governments pushing to ban non-EV cars over a certain timeline while subsidizing more expensive EVs.

        The most important thing right now in addition to fuel prices is how much cheaper EVs are getting because of innovation in China.

    • ReactiveJelly 1 hour ago
      I bought one because I had a feeling that the price of used EVs was about to shoot up
    • askvictor 1 hour ago
      This also coincides with EVs becoming better and cheaper
    • gonzalohm 1 hour ago
      I think this is people that were thinking of getting an EV anyway and they decided to do it earlier
    • dgellow 2 hours ago
      Pretty frustrating that so many people have to face the actual crisis to actually react to it. And that’s the case in so many situations
    • sampton 42 minutes ago
      What is there to not understand. Given large enough population there's always someone ready to update.
  • Neywiny 1 hour ago
    I'm not considering replacing my car just yet, but supplementing with an electric scooter or bike might be nice
  • neals 1 hour ago
    as a charging station network founder, I can confirm, the summer has never started off this welll.
  • pstuart 2 hours ago
    A silver lining to the storm clouds of war.
    • ericd 2 hours ago
      Yep, Trump enacted a de facto global carbon tax.
      • dgellow 2 hours ago
        The carbon tax is supposed to finance things, what Trump has done is more like forcing the crisis. More like an acceleration
        • raphaelj 1 hour ago
          Well most of the increase in prices goes into petroleum companies' profits (at least the ones that can export). So it's technically not lost and will be invested somehow.

          Like a Carbon tax, the money doesn't disappear. But to whom it gets distributed, that's another story...

  • etchalon 1 hour ago
    We went with a PHEV when I renewed our lease last month, specifically because gas prices
    • nielsbot 1 hour ago
      Curious why not pure EV?
      • loloquwowndueo 39 minutes ago
        Range anxiety is probably the only reason one would choose a PHEV these days. They’re slightly cheaper also but that’s unlikely to be a factor.
      • m463 38 minutes ago
        might depend on the country.

        US/california would probably be 50c/kwh (though gas there is close to $7)

        all other US states are less (for now, datacenters, ugh)