Iran war revs up electric car demand in Asia

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HANOI – Electric vehicle sales have jumped in South-east Asia as cost-conscious buyers poured into dealerships looking to dodge the fuel price spikes driven by the Iran war.

Asian nations have been particularly hard hit due to a sharp fall in the crude shipments they rely on – and have few alternatives to replace them.

Yet the energy crisis has been a windfall for Vietnam’s leading electric vehicle maker Vinfast as well as Chinese manufacturers.

Vietnamese office worker Do Thi Lan explained the simple maths of the cars’ appeal at a Vinfast showroom in Hanoi.

“We have to calculate our monthly expenses, as the money we spend on petroleum has been on the rise,” she said.

She said her family owns a car that runs on petrol but was considering buying an electric vehicle to save money.

School teacher Dao Thi Hue, also at the showroom, was looking to go electric too.

“Driving an EV is so much better than driving a petroleum vehicle, in terms of costs and also in terms of saving fuel, queueing to fill up,” the teacher said.

Crude oil prices have soared by around 50 per cent since the start of the Middle East war and again exceeded US$100 per barrel on April 13, driving up the cost at the pump.

Vinfast, listed on the Nasdaq, saw a 127 per cent surge in annual sales in Vietnam in March, reaching 27,600 cars.

About 40 per cent of cars sold in Vietnam in 2025 were electric, but the trend has been accelerating.

“At this point in time, clients consider fuel costs a lot when making a decision on which cars to buy,” said deputy head of sales Pham Minh Hai at a Vinfast showroom.

“In March we sold 300 to 400 cars,” he said, noting that the showroom normally sells between 200 and 250 cars a month.

Mr Hai said more than 50 per cent of his clients changed from petroleum to electric cars in March, while the number of customers at the showroom was up by around 30 per cent.

He added that opening hours had been extended to deal with the rush.

Outside Vietnam, Chinese manufacturers specialising in electric vehicles, particularly Tesla’s main rival BYD, are booming.

‘Punished by gas prices’

At the Bangkok Auto Show earlier in April, BYD secured the most orders of any manufacturer, surpassing Japan’s Toyota for the first time.

“I drive a lot, nearly 100km a day... With the current fuel situation and no idea how long it will last, it’s become a major factor pushing me to make the switch,” said 36-year-old pharmacist Pleng Nawintham from Thailand.

BYD was also seeing increased sales in the Philippines.

Ms Mae Anne Clarisse Bacquiano, manager of a BYD showroom in the suburbs of Manila, said foot traffic at the dealership was “at another level”.

“It was all because of the rise in fuel prices,” she said. “Earlier today, I had a customer, a doctor who was ranting to me about how he is being punished by gas prices... He was in a hurry to go full electric. There’d be a huge difference in expenses.”

She added that all of her stock for the month had already been reserved by buyers.

Entrepreneur Arlone Abello, who was checking out BYD models in the showroom, said: “I don’t expect the gas (prices) to go back down over the next couple of months.”

As BYD sales decline in China due to fierce local competition, the manufacturer hopes to gain international momentum.

The company told analysts that it now expects to exceed 1.5 million exported vehicles in 2026, well above the 1.3 million target announced in January.

Structural change

Exports of Chinese electric vehicles – for which South-east Asia is a major market – doubled in March, compared with March 2025 across all manufacturers, according to the industry association CPCA.

Economic factors are at the forefront of the increased demand for greener vehicles.

“You have the individual consumer response to what they are seeing in terms of the price of petrol or diesel suddenly surging,” said electricity and data analyst Euan Graham at energy think-tank Ember.

The installation of charging stations in the region is also growing rapidly.

Jakarta promised last week to take “more serious steps to accelerate the development of a national electric vehicle ecosystem” to combat its “high level of energy consumption”.

Electric vehicles are gaining momentum beyond South-east Asia.

“There are signs that global demand has already picked up substantially,” Capital Economics said, adding that registrations of electric vehicles in Japan, South Korea and New Zealand more than doubled in March, and rose by over 50 per cent in India and Australia. AFP