The end of September 2021 saw the United Kingdom fall into the midst of a fuel crisis. Although the country has a healthy level of petrol reserves, the problem stems from a large-scale shortage of HGV drivers to transport fuel to petrol stations nationally. As some stations announced they would be closing due to the shortage, widespread panic buying caused as much as 90% of fuel pumps in UK cities to run out of petrol. As a result of the crisis, it appears that the nationwide petrol shortage may accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.
As the UK struggled to keep up with demand for petrol, interest in electric vehicles spiked, with Auto Trader Group Plc claiming that it had begun receiving direct inquiries for electric cars on average every 1.8 minutes as the crisis escalated - roughly twice as frequently as the month prior.
As Google Trends data shows, searches accelerated rapidly in late September for electric vehicles, but is this trend going to be a sustainable one? And what could it mean for the growth of EV stocks? Let’s take a deeper look at the opportunities that are potentially rising through the UK petrol shortage:
Accelerating Adoption
The UK petrol shortage has prompted a massive spike in online searches for electric vehicles, with one analysis commissioned by Carguide finding that interest in EVs climbed some 1,600% on September 24th - when the shortage grew to a national scale.
“The fuel supply crisis and the scenes of panic at the pumps could prove to be the most influential switching event ever, with more people than ever considering switching to electric,” said Sepi Arani, director of trade at Carwow.
“The levels of demand for EVs through carwow this weekend have been completely unprecedented and are genuine proof that more people want to make the switch.”
Significantly, the crisis has provided the backdrop to Motor Fuel Group’s flagship electric vehicle charging station in London, which opened on the 28th of September.
Motor Fuel Group CEO, William Bannister was keen to highlight growing EV adoption trends - particularly in the UK capital - as the new charging station opened:
“London motorists are leading the way when it comes to EV adoption, but the majority of London’s EV drivers cannot charge at home,” Bannister said. “The public charging network needs to keep up with the rapid change in consumer behaviours, and the MFG EV Power network will do just that. Within the M25, our 2021 EV roll-out programme alone will nearly quadruple the number of open-network 150kW EV Chargers that were installed at the start of the year.”
The growth in the number of EV charging points coupled with the temporary decline in the availability of petrol in the UK may indicate a sliding doors moment in the adoption of electric vehicles that could see EV-focused stocks benefit from the crisis.
EV Barriers Still Exist
Despite significant growth in interest regarding EV vehicles, Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader told Business Leader that the UK isn’t ready to take a major step towards abandoning petrol cars for their electric counterparts.
“Electric cars are prohibitively expensive for the majority of people, and despite the significant increase in range performance among new models, capable of reaching around 250 miles on a single charge, concerns of an inadequate charging infrastructure remain,” Plummer noted.
“To make them a genuinely viable option for mainstream buyers, we need more commitment to provide greater incentives to deal with the upfront cost, as well as more investment to improve the national infrastructure to support both those rare long journeys, and those without access to home charging.”
Although Plummer believes barriers to adoption are too significant to leverage any meaningful momentum towards the widespread adoption of EVs, stock market analysts remain buoyant about the short-term growth of EV stocks.
Maxim Manturov, head of investment research at Freedom Finance Europe, highlighted Blink Charging (NASDAQ: BLNK) as a stock for investors to watch in the future.
Blink Charging “owns, operates, and provides electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment and networked electric vehicle charging services in the United States through its subsidiaries,” said Manturov. “The company provides residential and commercial electric vehicle charging equipment, allowing drivers to recharge their vehicles in a variety of locations. It also offers the Blink Network, a cloud-based system that manages, maintains, and monitors Blink's various charging stations and associated charging data, as well as internal transactions and payment processing.”
As we can see from the data above, BLNK has enjoyed a strong end to 2020 off the back of news that the UK government was committing to outlawing the sale of new petrol cars by 2030 - showing that the stock is capable of rising significantly in the wake of concerns surrounding petrol.
(Image: Motley Fool)
We can also see clear evidence of specialist EV-focused ETF outperformance compared to the S&P 500 - illustrating that market optimism for renewable energy vehicles is already thriving.
Although it may be a little too early for the UK fuel crisis to prompt a widespread shift towards EVs, it does present further evidence of clear consumer intent to buy over the coming years - serving as a timely reminder that EV-focused stocks represent plenty of investment opportunities on Wall Street.