U.S. gas prices hit $4.23 a gallon as U.S.-Iran tensions rattle crude markets, and used EV sales explode 54% in a single month. Today's briefing connects the geopolitical oil risk, the lease-return supply glut, and what OPEC+ cohesion means for prices ahead.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Used electric vehicle sales jumped fifty-four percent in a single month. That's not a gradual trend.
In March twenty twenty-six, forty-two thousand nine hundred and twenty-four used EVs were sold in the U.S. That's up fifty-three point nine percent from February and nearly twenty-eight percent higher than the same month last year. Both the month-over-month and year-over-year figures matter, because together they confirm this isn't seasonal noise.
There's a structural reason supply is there to meet this demand. Between twenty twenty-two and twenty twenty-five, a federal tax credit loophole allowed leased EVs to be classified as commercial vehicles.
The geopolitical piece has a longer tail. Five Gulf nations, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, the UAE, and Kuwait, all rank in the global top ten for crude production.
OPEC+ cohesion is a live variable worth watching. Russia and Saudi Arabia have navigated production tensions before, but the coalition's ability to coordinate response to a sustained price spike above one hundred and twenty dollars per barrel is genuinely unclear.
The near-term watchpoints are straightforward. Track whether U.S.-Iran escalation moves from price pressure to physical supply disruption, specifically around the Strait of Hormuz.
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