Transport

Private sector vital to meet Gulf EV charging station demand

February 10, 2025, 7:48 AM

Saudi Arabia and the UAE intend to build thousands more EV charging stations

Only 300 Saudi EV charging stations
UAE needs another 4,000
Private sector ‘crucial’, says provider

Demand for charging stations for electric vehicles in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states is expected to surge this year and beyond as regional governments set ambitious greenhouse gas emission targets and sales of EVs pick up.

Saudi Arabia, for instance, has fewer than 300 charging stations, but is committed to building 5,000 more by 2030 at a cost of more than $1 billion.

In the UAE, there are about 2,000 public charging stations, a number that needs to treble to 6,000 by the end of the year to meet demand, said Anish Racherla, CEO of Regeny, a specialised provider of EV charging infrastructure. Charging station demand is then expected to grow to 16,000 by 2030.

“Private investment will be crucial to meet the region’s ambitious sustainability goals,” Racherla said.

Investment in charging stations in the UAE is mainly driven by the public sector, with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) and the Abu Dhabi state oil company Adnoc as the main players. Dewa, for instance, operates 400 charge points.

Santiago Castillo, Middle East managing director at the global consultancy Roland Berger, said private sector initiatives were mostly driven by original equipment manufacturers, who produce components or products that are sold to other companies to be integrated into their own products.

In Saudi Arabia, development of the network of charging stations is led by EVIQ, a company backed by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, and the private companies Electromin and ASX E-Mobility.

From January to October last year global private equity deal-value in EV-charging infrastructure topped $1 billion, just a little below the $1.11 billion the sector received in all of 2023, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

However, that amount is less than one third of the total capital raised in each of the two preceding years, as relatively high interest rates and uncertainty over the future of more sustainable mobility, led by now-US president Donald Trump, dampened investor enthusiasm.

Giampiero Frisio, president of ABB Electrification, part of the Swiss-Swedish electrical engineering corporation ABB, said that, unlike in the US and Europe, its e-mobility unit in the Middle East is growing in double digits.

“It’s a very strong-growing segment,” Frisio told AGBI. “Even though there is this slump in Europe, in the Middle East it’s very good. Of course we’re starting with a lower base here.”

Battery-powered vehicles represented approximately one fifth of new car sales globally in 2023. In the Middle East, they only recorded about 1 percent market penetration, with the UAE leading regionally at 3 percent of total car sales. In Saudi Arabia it was just 0.1 percent.

The UAE maintains 0.1 charging stations per 1,000 inhabitants, while in China and France the share is 1.6 and 1.5 stations respectively, according to Karim Elgendy, associate fellow at Chatham House.

Insufficient charging infrastructure “remains a critical barrier” to adoption of EVs across the region, Elgendy said.