From reducing carbon footprint to ensuring cost-effectiveness, it is an electric ride down the road for the UAE. Besides reducing costs, electric cars help preserve the environment. To get more people interested in driving electric vehicles, the UAE is pulling out all the stops.
Apart from improving infrastructure in the country, plans are afoot to have more charging stations. Recently a new incentive programme was launched by the UAE Ministry of Energy to encourage motorists to buy new zero-carbon-emissions electric vehicles through green bank loans, green insurance plans, attractive prices for electric vehicles and green registration of vehicles. Dubbed ‘Incentives for Using Electric Vehicles’, the country is aiming at having 10 per cent of car fleets of federal ministries and agencies to comprise electric vehicles. The long-term plan aims for up to 20 per cent of government fleets to be powered by electric vehicles. These will complement other alternative-fuel measures for government vehicles undertaken by the authorities.
With the general public expected to follow suit, the UAE is expected to see more model options for electric cars in the years ahead. The march to wean people off petrol and diesel vehicles is a long one but one well worth the effort. The UAE has been among the leading nations encouraging the use of electric vehicles.
Last year, the UAE Supreme Council issued a directive that called for government institutions to ensure 10 per cent of all new purchases of vehicles comprise hybrid or electric ones. This will support the UAE’s target of having two per cent of all vehicles in the country to comprise hybrid or electric vehicles by 2020. And by 2021, the total carbon emission in Dubai alone is likely to drop 19 per cent.
