Russians are increasingly looking for survival measures to keep their daily life going as the Ukrainian war lingers. One of them are electrified cars.
Russian battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales more than doubled between June and August this year, climbing to 26,543 units. This represents an increase of 118 per cent.
The cause is not environmental regulation or consumer enthusiasm for clean transport. It is petrol rationing and refinery smoke. Ukrainian drone strikes have disabled 24 of Russia’s 33 largest oil refineries, leaving the country unable to process enough crude for its own motorists.
Growing but still low
Obviously, these numbers need some context. Because, even after this surge, plug-in vehicles account for only about six per cent of total Russian car sales. Russia has long been – and still is – a backwater for electric mobility. As one of the world’s heavyweight oil producers, it kept domestic petrol prices low enough to disencourage any incentive to electrify.
But, ironically, Putin’s war in Ukraine and his obsession over fossil energy strategies is backfiring, as the renewed interest in electric cars points out. The same unwanted side-effect is witnessed in the U.S. where Trump’s war against oil-rich Iran is reviving domestic interest in electric cars over soaring pump prices.
Sharp thorn in the side
In recent months, Ukrainian forces have penetrated deep into Russian airspace to strike energy infrastructure. The visible result has been long queues at petrol stations, regional restrictions on fuel sales, and a government ban on petrol exports. For a nation whose economy runs on crude, this is a sharp thorn in the side.
Though the case for electrified cars in Russia remains modest, it offers a special demonstration of what actually can move consumers toward electrification. There are no domestic emissions regulations or purchase subsidies driving this shift. The motive is purely practical: filling a combustion car has become inconvenient, uncertain and expensive.
Whether the momentum lasts remains, obviously, unclear. If refining capacity is restored or fuel rationing becomes routine, the immediate pressure on buyers may ease and redirect them toward combustion engines.
A Dongfeng in disguise
Meanwhile, the Russian market for electric cars remains underwhelming, counting roughly ten models. Most of them are Chinese, built locally or imported from the neighbouring country. However, even without factory-backing some models are grey imports.
The Chinese Evolute i-Joy is the best-selling BEV, a Russian-built SUV derived from a Chinese model from Dongfeng, approximately absorbing a third of the market.
Though Russia is a petrostate, charging infrastructure is rising at a rate of 20% annually, with a current network between 8,000 and 10,000 charging stations. But these are heavily concentrated around metropolitan areas and don’t cover the vast territory if the nation anywhere near.
The Russian uptick in EV sales shows what really matters: electrification is the only route towards energy indepedence, as it can can be made from several sources, ranging from hydropower over nuclear, wind, solar and gas installations. If you exclude yourself from the international market by getting banned over a war an your energy infrastructure is under attack, that vulnerability becomes painfully clear.
