Reference News Network, March 22 report: The Bloomberg News website published a report by journalist Neil Jerome Morales and Linda Lu on March 19, titled "As Oil Prices Fluctuate Following the Iran Conflict, BYD Showrooms Across Asia Are Crowded." The following is the translated report:
At a BYD car dealership in Manila's financial district, demand for electric vehicles produced by this Chinese company is strong. Salesperson Matthew Dominic Poh said that the store has received orders equivalent to a month's worth of business in just the past two weeks. Poh said, "Due to rising oil prices, customers are switching to electric vehicles."
Although automakers have not yet released sales data for March (the first full month since the start of the Iran war), preliminary signs suggest that Asian electric vehicle manufacturers such as China's BYD and Vietnam's VinFast will benefit from the surge in sales caused by the sharp rise in oil prices.
The impact of rising oil prices is particularly severe in Asia. Before the conflict actually closed the Strait of Hormuz, about 80% of the oil transported through the strait eventually went to Asia.
Park Ji-wook, chief economist at the Asian Development Bank, said, "Rising oil prices help accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. It creates economic incentives to speed up the green transition."
However, Joanna Chen (phonetic), an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, pointed out that the automotive industry needs to make large-scale infrastructure investments to maintain consumer interest in the surge in electric vehicle demand, to compensate for the current lack of charging stations.
She said, "Affordability and charging issues have been the two biggest factors hindering the adoption of electric vehicles." She added that as oil prices rise, the total cost of owning an electric vehicle may gradually equal that of a gasoline-powered car, "In countries outside China, the initial cost of electric vehicles is still generally higher than that of gasoline cars."
Even before the oil crisis triggered by the Iran war, the penetration rate of electric vehicles was increasing in Asia, with only a few countries such as Japan being exceptions. In China, new energy passenger vehicles account for more than half of domestic new car sales, thanks to government efforts to promote the development of the local industry based on alternative energy.
Surapong Baisripaiboon, spokesperson for the Automotive Industry Club of the Thai Industrial Association, said, "If oil prices remain at current levels or rise further, we expect a significant increase in demand for electric vehicles."
As the world's largest producer of electric vehicles, Chinese automakers will gain the most benefits from the surge in electric vehicle demand. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that in the first two months of this year, before the war began, exports of new energy vehicles increased by more than 100% year-on-year. (Translated by Feng Xue)
Original: toutiao.com/article/7619984241484497448/
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