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'EV lane' on Sheikh Zayed Road? UAE experts call for more ways to improve electric vehicle usage
The country’s EV market is projected to reach $16.3 million by 2030, but what will it take to spark a full-blown EV revolution?
The UAE wants half of the cars on its road to be electric by 2050 — but by 2030, researchers at PwC estimate that only 15 per cent of vehicles are expected to be EVs. “That is definitely a stretched target,” said Heiko Seitz, Global & Middle East eMobility leader at PwC Middle East, adding that without regulation changes, the 2050 target is “basically impossible”.
If only 15 per cent of cars on UAE roads are electric by 2030, the country will need to more than triple that number in just two decades — cranking up EV adoption by 1.75 percentage points every year — to hit its 50 per cent target by 2050.
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EVs made up just six per cent of new car sales in the UAE last year — double from three per cent the year before. The country’s EV market is projected to reach $16.3 million by 2030, yet adoption isn’t accelerating fast enough to match its long-term ambitions.
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Hoping to accelerate adoption, the UAE has introduced incentives designed to make EV ownership more enticing. Dubai, in particular, has taken its own approach to push more drivers toward EVs. To meet its goal of having 30 per cent of the city’s cars electric by 2030, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) allocated free parking spaces for EVs in various lots for two-year periods. The RTA also grants a free Salik tag upon vehicle registration. If EV drivers were registered with the Dewa EV Green Charger Initiative, they could previously charge their cars for free.
While government incentives are a good start, they’re not enough to spark a full-blown EV revolution. Seitz says the EV adoption lag in the UAE can be dumbed down to three fundamental issues — a gap in consumer education, availability of charging infrastructure, and availability of electric models in the market.
“If we put an EV lane on Sheikh Zayed Road that is only dedicated for electric cars, call it the leftmost lane, I definitely think there’s going to be a lot of EV demand,” said Kevin Chalhoub, founder and CEO of EV Lab.
The UAE has taken a market-driven approach to EV adoption, banking on demand to grow naturally rather than enforcing strict policies. “The country believes in organic markets that are not artificially created because organically grown markets are usually stronger,” Seitz said.
Meanwhile, instead of letting EV adoption unfold naturally, Saudi Arabia is putting money and mandates behind the transition. The government has laid out clear policies, invested heavily in infrastructure, and set firm EV quotas for fleets. It’s also backing the development of an entire EV ecosystem — from manufacturing to charging networks — so that supply can grow alongside demand. By 2030, electric cars are expected to account for over 30 per cent of new light-duty vehicle sales in Saudi. By 2035, that number is set to pass 60 per cent.
A big part of the problem is that many drivers still don’t know enough about EVs — how they work, what they cost long-term, or whether they can handle road trips outside the city. The UAE government doesn’t just need to set goals — it needs to push automakers to step up, run serious education campaigns, and make the EV transition feel like an obvious choice, not a gamble. “ There can always be more supportive policies. But all in all, I think consumer education is important, and that’s what we’re trying to solve,” Chalhoub said. EV Lab, tucked away in the same plaza as Dubai’s World Trade Center, gives customers a hands-on shopping experience — letting them explore curated EV models, take test drives, and walk away with a lease or purchase. The cars come from all over — shipped in from the US, Europe, and Asia — with rental prices ranging anywhere from Dh2,000 to Dh18,000 a month.
“ You have a better product, cheaper overall with the total cost of ownership. Not a lot of people know that,” Chalhoub said.
A study published in Sustainability found that while drivers across all income levels are drawn to EVs for their fuel savings, higher-income buyers focus more on saving on maintenance costs than the hefty upfront price tag. Interest in EVs is strongest in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where charging stations are easier to find, but drop off in less populated emirates like Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain. Without policies tailored to these areas, the shift to electric mobility risks leaving rural drivers in the dust.
“A car might come up a bit more expensive up front, but in reality, the total cost of ownership is much less. You have 10 times fewer spare parts on average in electric cars. So, your service fees and after-sales service fees are much, much less,” Chalhoub said. “ You’re paying between one-third and one-sixth of the price per kilometre driven than you are for petrol. So, you’re saving up a lot actually by choosing an electric car even with no further governance incentives.”
Other countries have already taken aggressive steps to make EVs more affordable. In the Netherlands, for example, fully electric cars are exempt from registration taxes until 2025, and road taxes are waived or reduced for plug-in hybrids. Private buyers can also qualify for direct purchase subsidies — €2,000 for a used EV or nearly €3,000 for a new one.
“It’s much cheaper to run an EV compared to a traditional car and now the ticket price is also going down significantly. We really see that owning an electric vehicle will very soon be significantly cheaper,” Seitz said.
Part of consumer education is also alleviating range anxiety, which Seitz describes as “the fear of running out of electricity on the road and being stranded”. This isn’t an issue with petrol engine cars because of the wide availability of gas stations, he added. “How far does my battery bring me? How fast can I charge?” These are valid questions consumers have today, Seitz said.
Range anxiety isn’t just a perception problem — it’s a real concern when charging stations are few and far between. PwC projects that by 2035, the UAE will have just 10,000 charge points. Currently, the UAE has only about 2,000 public charging stations, with most of them being in Dubai, and more than half of them are slow chargers, according to PwC.
Charging is so much cheaper and more readily available than people would think. Most people who own an electric car don’t necessarily charge on public chargers, right? They’ll have one in their apartment building, in their villa, or at work… It’s easy to install in a villa. You don’t need to charge it more than once a week, maybe twice."
Kevin Chalhoub, Founder And Ceo, Ev Lab
Through the EV Green Charger Initiative, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) analyses usage data, population density, and real estate developments to determine where new stations should go. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, CEO of DEWA, said one of the biggest early hurdles was adapting charging infrastructure to the UAE’s extreme heat and dust—conditions most chargers weren’t originally built to handle. Despite the challenges in expanding charging infrastructure, usage continues to grow. “DEWA’s EV Green Charger initiative has seen significant growth, with a 50 per cent annual increase in usage of EV Green Charger services in 2024, indicating its success in promoting green mobility in Dubai,” Al Tayer said. Meanwhile, Adnoc and Taqa have set their sights much higher, aiming to install 70,000 charging stations by 2030.
Requiring new construction projects, commercial and residential buildings, parking lots, and highways to include EV charging stations would help expand infrastructure and make charging more accessible. “ If you live in an apartment in a tower, you depend on public charging and there is at this point simply not enough charging infrastructure out there,” Seitz said.
Chalhoub looks at the issue differently. “ Charging is so much cheaper and more readily available than people would think,” he said, arguing that, “most people who own an electric car don’t necessarily charge on public chargers, right? They’ll have one in their apartment building, in their villa, or at work… It’s easy to install in a villa. You don’t need to charge it more than once a week, maybe twice.”
The EV Lab founder argues it is a matter of pushing your apartment building management or employer to install chargers where your car is already going to be parked most of the time. While expanding the public charging network will help ease range anxiety, he points out that most EVs on the market today can handle a round-trip commute to Abu Dhabi without needing a charge. “ It’s just 150km away at most, so you can go back and forth with no problem. So, range anxiety is much less of an issue here than anywhere in the world,” Chalhoub said.
Some car companies, like Tesla, have taken it upon themselves to deploy their own charging stations throughout the UAE, which allows the American carmaker to continue to dominate the UAE’s EV market due to its strong brand recognition and reputation for reliability. PwC says it has a stronghold on 55 per cent of EV sales. It is the default choice for early adopters, thanks to its brand power, long range, and exclusive Supercharger network that gives it a serious edge. But Tesla’s monopoly isn’t as firm as it used to be — other players are starting to creep in. Chinese automakers, especially BYD — which is seen throughout Uber fleets in the UAE — are making moves. “Overall, the Chinese share of electric vehicles offered in UAE, just like anywhere else in the world, by the way, is massively increasing,” Seitz said.
“The whole market is at an intersection,” Chalhoub said about EV car manufacturing. “ New brands that are trying to disrupt the incumbents.” While he argues Chinese brands will always have something exciting to offer, “ there’s also going to be an appetite for German brands, some American brands like Lucid Motors, Rivian”.
The UAE has big EV ambitions, but there’s one major gap — it doesn’t make its own electric cars. While the UAE government has invested in some brands like Nio, right now, the market is entirely dependent on imports. Having EV production within the country is a game changer, Seitz said. It’s a gateway to incentivise adoption financially — governments can have more leeway in waiving certain taxes and fees, making locally produced EVs more affordable. “Subsidies cost a lot of money,” Seitz said. Building electric cars on UAE soil wouldn’t just cut costs — it would bring in investment, create jobs, and give the country greater control over its own market and sustainability goals. “It’s a natural accelerator,” Seitz said.
At its core, the UAE’s EV push isn’t just about boosting the auto industry and stirring the economy — it’s about sustainability. “I’m part of the generation that grew up with climate change being an issue,” Chalhoub said. “Now we’re in our 30s, and it’s still an issue. Hopefully, we’re here to solve it.”
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