Reuters reports that China has created an important defense shield against oil price shocks by increasingly using electric taxis.

According to this report, the boom in electric taxis has meant that despite a surge in gasoline prices due to disruption by the Islamic Republic at the Strait of Hormuz, passenger transport fares in China have even continued to decline.

Based on official data, more than three billion trips by taxi in China were carried out in May, which is a 6% increase compared with the first month of the war in the Middle East, March.

The growing use of electric taxis has caused China’s gasoline consumption in May to fall by 10% and diesel consumption by 14%. Since the start of the war in the Middle East, China has reduced its oil imports by 40%.