PARIS: Soaring fuel prices due to the Mideast war have supercharged sales of electric cars in the second quarter, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday. Electric vehicle sales jumped 35 percent in the second quarter from the first three months of this year, hitting records in 50 countries, the IEA said in a new report. “Despite a challenging backdrop for the global car market, sales of electric cars surged in the second quarter of this year as the energy crisis sparked by the war in the Middle East brought fuel price volatility back into sharp focus,” it said.

A surge in worldwide EV sales is shaping up as the leading low-carbon impact of the Mideast Gulf crisis — with China as the main beneficiary.

With the oil price soaring amid the Iran war, drivers increasingly chose electric cars over internal combustion engines from April to June this year