Will electric vehicle brands look to capitalize on Britain's fuel shortage? - The Drum

Google searches for EV have spiked by 1,600%

Petrol station queues, boarded-up pumps and limits on fill-ups. This week Britain has been gripped by a fuel crisis that has not only led to panic buying petrol, but also attempts to panic buy electric vehicles (EV).

Google search data showed a 1,600% surge in EV on Monday. Meanwhile, Auto Trader logged a 61% increase in interest for electric cars and Carwow saw a 59% uplift.

Britain’s fuel shortage has pushed the general public to seriously consider buying electric vehicles, which have long been the preserve of EV enthusiasts, according to Stephen Kenwright, co-founder of SEO agency Rise at Seven.

Prior to the petrol crisis Kenwright said Tesla and ‘Tesla shares’ were the dominant searches related to EV, receiving 450,000 and 670,000 searches per month respectively.

Since the crisis, Kenwright said searches for ‘electric vehicle’ is now the dominant trend.

“All of a sudden people who had no interest in the EV market are now searching EV and researching if they are affordable,” Kenwright said.

Previously EV brands have used technical and features-based SEO messaging to reach consumers already engaged with EV.

Kenwright advised brands hoping to capture this new demographic to use top funnel phrases.

“EV marketers now need to assume most people don’t know anything about EV and instead use very broad educational search topics and avoid going straight to purchase,” he said.

Elsewhere, Kenwright said there hasn’t been noticeable...

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