Charging initiatives in Dubai and Saudi Arabia

Dubai and Saudi Arabia plan to expand the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. While Dubai already set concrete targets, Saudi Arabia wants to build out a high-power charging network at the pace the market ramps up.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) issued plans to increase the number of charging stations from 370 to 1,000 by 2025. Details on the type of charge points have not been disclosed yet. The 370 charging points currently installed are an undefined mix of DC and AC charging stations. Overall, Dubai wants to increase the number of charging points by 170 per cent in less than three years.

In Saudi Arabia, however, Electromin, a provider of mobility solutions for the Petromin Corporation, is planning to build an ultra-fast DC charging network to supplement the 100 AC chargers installed last year and connect the country’s major cities. Electromin does not yet specify the number of high-power chargers to be built or a timetable but say it will go by the sales of electric vehicles.

Electromin also confirmed hardware would come from Siemens. AC chargers will come as VersiCharge; in the case of HPC, Siemens will supply Sicharge D columns to Saudi Arabia. The deal was agreed last November. However, Siemens did not specify the number of charging stations at the time.

dewa.gov.ae (Dubai), zawya.com (Saudi Arabia)