The bikes taking on the oil shock

Vendors wait for prospective buyers beside rows of new and traditional motorcycles on display during a rainstorm in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 22, 2026. With gas prices high, people in developing countries like Pakistan are racing to buy battery-powered bikes. The Iran war has made Donald Trump “salesman of the year,” as one executive put it. (Asim Hafeez/The New York Times)

THE frenzy started on a single street in Lahore, Pakistan, where a half-dozen showrooms sprang up selling the same thing – electric motorcycles – and still couldn’t keep up with demand.

As gasoline prices soared this year, a seventh store opened, followed by an eighth. Another two are doing business just around the corner.