The EV conversation in America has long been dominated by coastal voices — California’s tech-forward culture, the Northeast’s progressive policy environment. The South, with its longer driving distances, more limited charging infrastructure, and more conservative political culture, has been a slower adopter. But Don Francis, president of the EV Club of the South, says the Iran conflict and its $3.90-per-gallon gas prices are changing the conversation in his region too.
The gas price spike stems from Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz following US and Israeli military strikes — a disruption to the waterway carrying roughly a fifth of global oil supply that has elevated crude prices worldwide. American retail gasoline prices have reached their highest level in nearly three years, and that financial pressure is being felt as acutely in Southern states as anywhere else in the country. CarEdge documented a 20 percent national increase in EV searches over the past three weeks.
Francis, who voted for the current president three times and frames his EV advocacy in terms of national energy security rather than environmental policy, said interest is clearly rising in the South. But he was careful to distinguish between rising interest and actual purchasing momentum. Range anxiety, he said, remains a significant barrier in a region where driving distances tend to be longer and charging infrastructure is less developed than in coastal metropolitan areas.
Francis said the current conflict has made the energy independence argument for EVs more salient for people who might not respond to environmental framings. He has sons in the military and sees America’s oil dependence as a national security vulnerability — a perspective that resonates in military-connected Southern communities in a way that climate arguments may not. The geopolitical dimension of the current gas price spike is, for many Southern EV advocates, the most compelling argument available.
The tipping point Francis is watching for would require both sustained high gas prices and meaningful improvements in Southern charging infrastructure. The used EV market at sub-$25,000 prices helps on the affordability side. But until the charging network catches up — particularly in rural areas and along the longer driving corridors common in Southern states — the practical case for EVs will remain more complicated in the South than in other regions.