Electric car sales are on track to hit record highs this year, with 29% of all new cars purchased around the world expected to be either purely battery-powered models or plug-in hybrids, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency. That’s a sharp increase from just 4% in 2020.

The boom in sales was somewhat unexpected. Some analysts had predicted a slower market for electric vehicles this year — until the U.S. war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz caused oil and gasoline prices to spike. That has led to a frenzy of electric car sales in many unexpected corners of the globe.

In South Africa, sales of electric cars more than quintupled in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. In Laos, imports of battery-powered vehicles from China are soaring. And in countries as different as Australia, Colombia and South Korea, the EV share of total new car sales has nearly doubled since fighting in the Middle East began.

The rise of electric vehicles is upending international car markets. Total sales of traditional cars with internal combustion engines have been in a steady decline, and this year, they’re expected to reach their lowest level since the early 2000s.

What makes the surge in electric car sales especially striking is that EV purchases have actually declined this year in both China and the United States, the world’s two largest automobile markets.

In China, which accounts for roughly half of all EV sales worldwide, a weakening economy and reduction in government subsidies led to a drop in overall purchases this year. (While electric vehicles improved their market share, the total number of cars sold declined in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2025.) China still has roughly as many electric vehicles on the road as the rest of the world combined, a trend that has noticeably curtailed the nation’s oil use.

The United States also saw a dip in sales this spring after Republicans in Congress phased out a $7,500 tax credit for electric cars last year. The Biden administration had pushed to expand the credit to help fight climate change, since electric vehicles produce fewer emissions than their gasoline- or diesel-powered counterparts.

Yet higher oil prices have pushed customers to go electric in many other markets.

Since the Iran war began in February, the price of Brent crude, a global benchmark for oil, has increased more than 25%. Over that time frame, EV sales have roughly doubled in Australia, Brazil, India and South Korea compared with the same period in 2025.

Car sales fluctuate for a variety of reasons — including government policies, economic conditions and the availability of new models — but there is good reason to think that at least some of this year’s EV boom is related to the spike in the price of oil and gasoline. Online searches for electric vehicles have increased significantly since the war began, according to an analysis by BloombergNEF, with some of the biggest increases in countries that have seen the largest rise in fuel prices.

Andrew Grant, an analyst at BloombergNEF, said that some of the increase in sales this spring could be consumers who had already been planning to buy an electric car and simply sped up their purchases. Still, he said, “as we see sustained or higher oil prices, you probably will get higher EV sales than what you might have seen otherwise.”

More than a dozen governments have also announced new policies to encourage electric vehicle adoption since the conflict began, as countries have sought to curb their imports of expensive oil. Ireland and the Netherlands introduced programs to encourage drivers to trade in their older combustion-engine vehicles for electric models. Chile provided incentives for buses and taxis to go electric. Spain extended electric vehicle tax credits for consumers. China has set new goals to electrify its trucks.

“The crisis has clearly reinforced the case for EVs as a way to address energy security and fuel cost concerns,” the International Energy Agency said in a report last month. The agency noted that vehicles on the road account for roughly half of the world’s oil use.