Sergei Tselikov, Russia’s leading auto industry expert, has owned more than 20 vehicles, including a Volvo, a Volkswagen and a Range Rover. All had gasoline engines. But in July, as Ukrainian drone strikes against oil refineries left drivers across the country waiting for hours at gas stations, he bought a fully electric Chinese hatchback. He had to act quickly — the price of the car, made by Great Wall Motor, went up by about $2,000 within days as demand surged.
“I tried to fill up one of my cars and drove around to five nearby gas stations, but they had only diesel or lower-grade petrol,” he said, referring to the poorer-quality fuels the government has allowed to be sold to address the shortages. “I was just too lazy to stand in line.” As Ukraine increasingly takes the war to Russia, the effects may be most visible on the roads. Since the end of June, Russia’s electric-vehicle market has more than doubled. Most of the E.V.s sold in the country are Chinese, a testament to Moscow’s economic pivot in response to Western wartime sanctions.
The number of electric vehicles, including hybrids, sold in the country went from 43,000 in the January-to-August period of 2025 to more than 83,000 over the same period this year, according to the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. By the end of September, the share of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids had reached 11.5 percent of the Russian car market, up from about 5 percent at the beginning of the year, according to Avtostat. The E.V. market share in Russia is now slightly higher than in the United States, but it is only a small fraction of the share in China, which is 45 percent.
While the E.V. surge in Russia stems from a specific factor — Ukrainian attacks — the shift there is the latest example of how war and supply shocks can quickly transform car-buying decisions. E.V. sales have boomed in other parts of the world because of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, which has caused oil and gasoline prices to soar. Globally, E.V.s are on track to account for a record 29 percent of all new car purchases this year, according to the International Energy Agency. In Russia, the fuel shortages are unnerving many Russians. On Friday, only 46 percent of gas stations across Russia were selling fuel, according to Gdebenz, a crowdsourced tool. In Moscow, gasoline was available at 53 percent of stations. In Nizhny Novgorod, the figure was only 27 percent.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing