An EV revolution is happening in the heart of OPEC

Think of the most important markets for electric vehicles (EVs) and you will have a list of the usual suspects: Norway, China, Germany, the United Kingdom. But Dubai?

- David Fickling

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

It seems improbable, but the second-biggest exporter in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) deserves a place alongside those other markets.

Fully electric vehicles comprised 10 per cent of the value of cars imported into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2024, according to trade data. Throw in hybrids and plug-in hybrids, and more than a quarter of the market is switching to batteries.

That is a troubling sign for the UAE and its oil-exporting neighbours in the Persian Gulf. If nations that owe their very existence to the transformative power of crude are switching to lithium-ion, then the prospects for their key export are looking distinctly shaky.

The UAE is, to be sure, an outlier. But it is not completely alone.

In Qatar, one in eight vehicles imported in 2024 was battery-powered or hybrid, with similar proportions in Iraq and Iran. The share was 10 per cent in Bahrain and 7 per cent in Kuwait.

EVs are springing up everywhere across the region. About 35,000 were registered in the UAE as of October 2024, according to government data.

Tesla has stores in four of the UAE's emirates as well as Qatar, and in April, it announced a division in Saudi Arabia. It is playing catch-up with China's BYD, already in all of those markets plus the other three Gulf monarchies.