Gas prices bring spike in demand for electric vehicles on P.E.I.

As the price of fuel reached record-breaking levels this week, Island car dealerships say they're seeing a surge in the number of people looking to buy electric vehicles.

But finding one on P.E.I. may take longer than you think.

On Monday, the minimum price for a litre of regular, self-serve gasoline — with the second unscheduled price review in a week — hit $1.865. The 12.6-cent jump in the price at the pump surpassed the previous inflation-included record set in July 2008, which was $1.81 in 2022 dollars.

Troy Leard at Centennial Nissan in Charlottetown said like many on P.E.I. he's been watching the price of gas climb, and in the last two weeks the number of calls he's received from people inquiring about buying an electric vehicle has shot up.

"We've more or less sold all the electric cars we had in stock except for three," he said. 

He said last July his dealership sold 26 electric cars and interest was strong over the summer, but died down a bit in the fall.

Leard said last week, his dealership sold eight electric cars over two days. 

"A lot of people driving trucks too have been coming in and wanting to trade to a smaller gas car or even some are interested in going from trucks to electric, so that's how big of a shock it is to the system."

Leard said he thinks there would an even bigger spike in electric vehicle sales if dealerships could get access to more new cars — the stock of 2022 models at his dealership is already sold out. 

"We don't have anything, and we can't get them," he said.

He said Nissan has already received more preorders for the 2022 Leaf than it can fill and won't be supplying any more of the vehicles to dealerships.

"We're hoping that, you know, they'll come out early with the 2023 maybe and hopefully get production back to where it needs to be, but as of now we can't get a new electric vehicle," Leard said. 

Leard said the shortage of EVs stems from increased demand and a global shortage of semiconductor chips used for many components in vehicles.

It's a challenge being felt by dealerships across the country, including at Summerside Hyundai. New 2022 models of electric vehicles are sold out there as well.