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Over the last week many UK residents have rushed to their nearest garage to ensure their fuel tank is full, after the news that a lack of HGV drivers has led to a fuel shortage.

The team at money-saving website www.offeroftheday.co.uk have analysed Google Trends data from over the past seven days, not only has the term “people panic buying petrol” increased by 3,550% - the topic of fuel itself has seen an overall search increase of 1,700% in just seven days.

They also found that the following Google searches have seen the biggest increase over the last seven days across the UK following the fuel shortage:

“Fuel availability near me” 4,650%

A common sight on petrol station forecourts

“Does fuel expire at petrol stations? ” 3,850%

“Why is everyone panic buying petrol? ” 1,900%

“Fuel panic” 1,200%

In addition to searches for where people can get fuel and why the panic buying is occurring, Google Trends data also shows that there has been a spike in people searching for things surrounding EVs over the past seven days as a result, such as “do electric cars need petrol?” (400% increase) and “cheapest electric car UK” (100% increase).

Google searches for the phrase “which petrol station near me has fuel?” have soared by 4,850% in the past seven days