The United Kingdom is currently being gripped by a fuel crisis, with scenes of long queues at petrol stations around the country making worldwide news. But it’s a crisis entirely of their own making.
You see, the UK is facing a fuel shortage, but rather a truck driver shortage. The combination of Brexit, as well as tax changes and the COVID-19 crisis (which many would argue the UK has done a bad job managing), has seen huge numbers of foreign truck drivers leave the UK and return to the continent. A truck driver shortage means fewer trucks making petrol deliveries, which means less petrol at British pumps, ABC News relates.
Naturally, many Brits are frustrated about the whole schemozzle… But one group who’s certainly not worried about it are electric car drivers. Indeed, one Welsh EV owner has really revelled in the schadenfreude, filming a stunt at a petrol station that’s divided the British public.
The video, which has gone viral and racked up over 1.2 million views on TikTok, sees a Tesla Model 3 owner pull up at a petrol station with a jerry can, joking he needs to stock up… Only to double-back and say “oh yeah, I don’t need to.” Hardly subtle, but exceedingly good banter nonetheless.
@im_tesla_Petrol crisis in UK 🥵😱🤭⛽️ ##fypシ ##fyp ##petrolstation ##ukpetrol ##petrolcrisis ##tesla ##model3 ##funny♬ original sound – wavawes
While most people have seen the funny side of the video, whinging Poms have come out in force, complaining about the video. No surprises there.
“As if people haven’t been through enough… Is there anything more infuriating than an electric car driver, serenely cruising past a petrol station queue?” one Wales Online writer has moaned.
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Of course, we can’t be too high and mighty here Down Under. It’s hard to forget the scenes of people panic buying toilet paper at the start of the pandemic – this is a similar sort of thing. The UK has Australia trounced when it comes to EV ownership, too. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) had a roughly 11% share of the UK new car market, compared to only 0.6% of the Australian new car market.
So while we can laugh it up right now, it’s actually a cautionary tale – for both the UK and Australia alike – about the negatives of being so dependent on fossil fuels. Besides, fuel prices are only going up…