But, even when as the lines diverge from one another, the overall trend for electrified vehicle shopping interest still generally paralleled gas price trends going up somewhat when gas prices rose. That still indicates a strong pull, said Drury. It just became less strong after that initial run-up in gas prices.

When gas prices first started rising sharply in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, consumers probably saw it as a new phenomenon and were uncertain how high prices might go, said Aleksandar Tomic, an associate dean for innovation and technology at Boston College. That would have caused queries about electric vehicles to spike. Once prices peaked and came back down, he said, consumers saw that there was limit and the initial fears subsided.

"People were able to adjust to the gas prices by driving less," he said. Also, companies were flexible about allowing employees to continue working from home, he said, putting less pressure on the need to use gas.

Even though it no longer so directly matches gas prices increases, interest in electric cars is still about three percentage points higher than it was at the start of 2022, according to Edmunds.com's data.

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Shopping interest doesn't directly correlate to actual sales of electric and hybrid sales, of course, especially not in today's auto market, constrained as it is by supply chain problems, said Drury. Electric and hybrid vehicles still only make up 10% of new vehicle sales.

But, even when as the lines diverge from one another, the overall trend for electrified vehicle shopping interest still generally paralleled gas price trends going up somewhat when gas prices rose. That still indicates a strong pull, said Drury. It just became less strong after that initial run-up in gas prices.

When gas prices first started rising sharply in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, consumers probably saw it as a new phenomenon and were uncertain how high prices might go, said Aleksandar Tomic, an associate dean for innovation and technology at Boston College. That would have caused queries about electric vehicles to spike. Once prices peaked and came back down, he said, consumers saw that there was limit and the initial fears subsided.

"People were able to adjust to the gas prices by driving less," he said. Also, companies were flexible about allowing employees to continue working from home, he said, putting less pressure on the need to use gas.

Even though it no longer so directly matches gas prices increases, interest in electric cars is still about three percentage points higher than it was at the start of 2022, according to Edmunds.com's data.

*

Shopping interest doesn't directly correlate to actual sales of electric and hybrid sales, of course, especially not in today's auto market, constrained as it is by supply chain problems, said Drury. Electric and hybrid vehicles still only make up 10% of new vehicle sales.