Electric vehicles: is Saudi Arabia plugged-in?

Improving energy efficiency is one of the most constructive and cost-effective ways to address the challenges of increasingly high energy prices, air pollution, and global warming. Most developed countries today have mature national-level energy efficiency programs to curb all the inefficiencies embedded in the conventional ways of generating and utilizing energy resources.

In 2010, Saudi Arabia established the Saudi Energy Efficiency Center (SEEC) to raise awareness of, and enhance, energy efficiency. A secondary aim is to unify the efforts of governmental and non-governmental agencies in this field. In a typical energy efficiency framework, an effective management of demand and supply results in lower energy consumption and cost, improved citizen comfort and enhanced productivity. The SEEC has identified three areas to be addressed in order to achieve the desired objectives as part of its Energy Efficiency (EE) framework: Construction, Transport and Industry. While different initiatives are planned to address the needs of EE in each sector, we believe the kingdom can further benefit in the transport sector by laying down a strategy to support and foster an electric vehicle (EV) culture in the country.