Mohammed Navfal

As of the end of 2024, there are only about 781 electric vehicles (EV) on the streets of Kuwait, ranking it at about the 0.03 percentile of the total car population and as the country with the lowest EVitization worldwide. In this study, we explore the reasons behind this ultra-low adoption rate from a variety of standpoints: 1. from a qualitative perspective based on deep interviews with 10 existing EV owners in Kuwait; 2. from the perspective of marketing and of capital and operational expenses by gathering the latest data from the common database of Kuwaiti automobile dealers; 3. from the perspective of governmental incentives and infrastructural development; and 4. from the technical perspective on how EVs perform in extreme heat conditions, such as those in Kuwait. From these four perspectives, we gather several reasons for the ultra-low adoption rate, and we provide a variety of possible solutions that are likely to increase the rate at which Kuwaiti residents replace their internal combustion engine automobiles with electric vehicles and, thus, lower their carbon footprint, which is one of the highest in the world.

As of end of June 2024, there are only about 597 Electric Vehicles (EV) on the streets of Kuwait, which is about 0.024 percentile of total car populations or about the lowest EVitization worldwide. In this paper we captured gains and pains of owning Electric Vehicle in Kuwait with the recommendation of 12 Kuwait EV owners through deep interviews. Furthermore, we in-terviewed dealers selling European, USA, Chinese and Korean EVs on how they see the future of EV’s in Kuwait; what needs to be changed to gain mass appeal and what are the main reasons they give for the ultra-low adoption as of late. Special attentions are given to which EVs model and sub-model have been sold and which models of EVs are likely to be successful in Kuwait if certain policy, implementation and social conditions are met in the near future. Finally, conditional EV sales prediction is made depending on set infrastructural changes as well as who would be the early majority and what their preference would be.