China's EV Boom Is Quietly Undermining Oil's Biggest Chokepoint
Oil Markets Price In an Iran Deal That Does Not Exist Yet Flexible grid connections, workload shifting,… Leon Stille has a background in energy sciences (MSc and BSc) and is pursuing a PhD in energy policy.
He currently runs his own company,… The conventional view of the Hormuz crisis is that China has been caught in an energy trap.
It is the world’s largest crude importer, the Gulf remains one of its most important sources of supply, and an estimated45–50% of Chinese crude imports normally transit the Strait of Hormuz.
When traffic through the strait slows, Beijing cannot simply replace all those barrels overnight.
China entered this crisis with large strategic and commercial inventories, diversified suppliers and the ability to suppress refinery runs.
More importantly, it entered with something previous oil-importing economies did not have during earlier supply shocks: a rapidly electrifying transport system already removing more than one million barrels per day of potential oil demand.
Electrification changes the balance permanently.
In the first half of 2026, China’s electric vehicle fleet displaced an estimated 34 million tonnes of oil.
Using a standard conversion for crude-equivalent volumes, that is around 1.35 million barrels per day, more than 1% of total global oil consumption.
The comparison with Chinese imports is even more revealing.
The oil displaced in six months is equivalent to roughly 6% of a full year of Chinese crude imports.
If maintained for the full year, the rate would approach 12%.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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