The ongoing crisis in the Middle East is still causing issues for some ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz. A knock-on effect of this is fuel prices spiking globally, despite a ceasefire deal initially causing crude oil prices to drop.
But there is another kickback from all the tension in the region, and it’s to do with the sale of electric motorcycles and scooters in Pakistan. Since the start of the tensions in the region, sales of electric motorcycles and scooters in Pakistan have boomed, and now account for more than 10 per cent of monthly sales, according to the Reuters news agency.
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According to Reuters, Haseeb Bhatti, who recycles petrol-powered bikes and turns them into full electric machines, saw his March sales increase by around 70 per cent. Another, Ali Gohar Khan, saw the biggest surge in sales ever across his seven electric bike franchises.
The fuel crisis has hit families in Pakistan particularly hard, with research from Reuters suggesting that an average household in the country would now spend more than 30 per cent of its income on a litre of petrol.
But it’s not just rising petrol prices that are pushing people to EVs. The average EV in Pakistan costs around 250,000 Rupees, which is around £650. That’s still a fair chunk of money for the average family in the country, although tasty incentives from the government, including interest-free loans and subsidies of up to one-fifth, are sealing the deal for many.
What’s happening in Pakistan doesn’t seem to be replicated in the UK 
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Back in Blighty, the same shift can’t be seen, and regardless of the price of petrol, UK motorcyclists seem just as sceptical about battery power as ever. Going by the latest MCIA sales data, 267 electric bikes were sold in March, compared to 349 for the same month in 2025 – a drop of 23.5 per cent. And it’s not like we can put that down to people not wanting to buy new bikes, as overall – away from the EV stuff – petrol bikes did well in March, increasing by 16.1 per cent compared to the same period last year.
It paints a pretty clear picture: when fuel becomes a genuine financial pressure that can gobble up half your family’s budget, rather than just an annoyance, riders are willing to adapt – and quickly. In Pakistan, that’s meant a sharp pivot to electric as a matter of necessity, not ideology. We also use bikes very differently here, and while there are a great number of day-to-day commuters in the UK, there are just as many riders using their bikes purely as a recreational plaything. Petrol prices here still sting, but don’t quite bite hard enough to force a swing to plug-in power; the urgency simply isn’t there yet.
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