by Tamara Pitelen
When it comes to cars, I’m your typical girl. Sadly, I’m not the woman who’s going to be smashing any stereotypes any time soon. However, recently I’ve been investigating the world of ‘green’ cars in the UAE, namely cars powered solely or partly by electricity as opposed to petrol, and it's been quite revelatory.
With levels of air pollution around the world literally killing people – seven million per annum globally at last count, of which 850 deaths are here in the UAEˡ – more people are choosing to buy cars that do not belch out clouds of toxic greenhouse gases.
Electric and hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius and Tesla are an increasingly common sight in countries like the UK and US but here in the UAE you could spend a very long time on Sheikh Zayed Road before you spot one. Why? The main reason is obvious. Petrol in this region is cheap therefore there is not the financial incentive to buy an electric or hybrid car. Interestingly though, I discovered it’s more complex than that. There are several other main factors that are preventing the uptake of electric and hybrid vehicles in this region. I will get to those in a minute because I want to tell you something else I found quite a revelation as well. The sector here in the UAE that is driving (excuse the pun) the move to more environmentally-friendly cars is the High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) end of the market. I know! Who knew all those rich people that often get tarred with the ‘selfish’ brush would be the ones leading the way on green vehicles?
Here in the UAE, it’s extremely difficult, in fact nigh on impossible, to buy an affordable electric or hybrid car such as the Toyota Prius. However if you want to buy a high-end premium brand hybrid, no problem at all! The main hybrids available here are Porsche (AED 485,000), Karma Fisker (AED 500,000), McLaren P1 (AED 3.7 million) and Lexus (c AED 300,000). Of all these companies, it's Porsche that's offering customers the most when it comes to options and servicing.
Managing Director Porsche Middle East & Africa George Wills said, “We have always believed that our customers should have access to the entire model range, including our hybrid offers. We don’t follow the general trend, we want to set it. It is important to start building up the awareness and confidence in customers for hybrid models in this region; only through this, the general acceptance will increase.”
In the UAE, Porsche offers the Cayenne S Hybrid, Panamera S Hybrid and Panamera S E-Hybrid. The world’s first plug-in hybrid in the luxury class, the Panamera S E-Hybrid’s fuel consumption is 3.1 litres per 100km and reaches a speed of up to 135 km/h in pure electric drive mode. This year will also see the unveiling of the 918 Spyder, the first ever hybrid super sports car with a total of 887 hp combined from three engines, an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 2.8 seconds and an average consumption of a mere 3.3 litres per 100 kilometres.
What will it cost you? A Panamera S Hybrid goes for AED 485,000 in comparison to its petrol equivalent, which will cost you AED 462,000. The Cayenne S Hybrid will cost you AED 326,000 while its petrol equivalent goes for AED 307,000.
Let’s get though to why there is little to no electric or hybrid cars available in the more mainstream market. First, where would you top up your battery? Currently, there is one single public recharge station in the UAE, that’s in DIFC. So, unless you live in a villa and have your own exclusive garaging with power points available, you’ve got nowhere to recharge the battery on your nice, environmentally-friendlier car.
Second, where will you get your car serviced? Electric and hybrid servicing is a different skill set to servicing a regular car. A car dealer would need to hire staff that can do it and would need to have different equipment and parts in stock for maintenance and repair of green cars. It seems that no one other than a handful such as Porsche are willing to make this investment unless they start to see increased demand for hybrid vehicles.
It’s a bit ‘chicken and egg’. No one will buy a green car until the infrastructure is available and no one is going to invest in the infrastructure until people start buying more green cars.
What’s the answer? A couple of things need to happen and most of them probably need to be government driven. For a start, there needs to be more financial incentives as have been introduced overseas, for example, carbon and emissions taxes for petrol polluters. This would make companies that have a fleet of company vehicles more likely to consider the emissions component of their vehicles.
In addition, more public solar powered charging stations need to be built. A country where the sun shines almost every day of the year could be an international leader on solar powered cars and technology if the initial investment were made.
I would not be surprised if we do see more legislation introduced in the UAE to cut the nation’s carbon footprint. The UAE authorities understand the issues with air pollution and the government is monitoring air pollution and murmurings have been heard regarding initiatives to cut emissions. Although, in a country where there is such a deep love of fast, powerful cars, this might not happen quickly.
Still though, the seeds are being sown and the winds of change are blowing – we may very well be witnessing the beginnings of the demise of the traditional petrol powered car.
For more about luxury green cars in the UAE, read the Aug-Sept issue of WEALTH magazine. The digital version is on the website from 5 August at www.cpifinancial.net
Original Post : http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22284/electric-and-hybrid-cars-in-the-uae
When it comes to cars, I’m your typical girl. Sadly, I’m not the woman who’s going to be smashing any stereotypes any time soon. However, recently I’ve been investigating the world of ‘green’ cars in the UAE, namely cars powered solely or partly by electricity as opposed to petrol, and it's been quite revelatory.
With levels of air pollution around the world literally killing people – seven million per annum globally at last count, of which 850 deaths are here in the UAEˡ – more people are choosing to buy cars that do not belch out clouds of toxic greenhouse gases.
Electric and hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius and Tesla are an increasingly common sight in countries like the UK and US but here in the UAE you could spend a very long time on Sheikh Zayed Road before you spot one. Why? The main reason is obvious. Petrol in this region is cheap therefore there is not the financial incentive to buy an electric or hybrid car. Interestingly though, I discovered it’s more complex than that. There are several other main factors that are preventing the uptake of electric and hybrid vehicles in this region. I will get to those in a minute because I want to tell you something else I found quite a revelation as well. The sector here in the UAE that is driving (excuse the pun) the move to more environmentally-friendly cars is the High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) end of the market. I know! Who knew all those rich people that often get tarred with the ‘selfish’ brush would be the ones leading the way on green vehicles?
Here in the UAE, it’s extremely difficult, in fact nigh on impossible, to buy an affordable electric or hybrid car such as the Toyota Prius. However if you want to buy a high-end premium brand hybrid, no problem at all! The main hybrids available here are Porsche (AED 485,000), Karma Fisker (AED 500,000), McLaren P1 (AED 3.7 million) and Lexus (c AED 300,000). Of all these companies, it's Porsche that's offering customers the most when it comes to options and servicing.
Managing Director Porsche Middle East & Africa George Wills said, “We have always believed that our customers should have access to the entire model range, including our hybrid offers. We don’t follow the general trend, we want to set it. It is important to start building up the awareness and confidence in customers for hybrid models in this region; only through this, the general acceptance will increase.”
In the UAE, Porsche offers the Cayenne S Hybrid, Panamera S Hybrid and Panamera S E-Hybrid. The world’s first plug-in hybrid in the luxury class, the Panamera S E-Hybrid’s fuel consumption is 3.1 litres per 100km and reaches a speed of up to 135 km/h in pure electric drive mode. This year will also see the unveiling of the 918 Spyder, the first ever hybrid super sports car with a total of 887 hp combined from three engines, an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 2.8 seconds and an average consumption of a mere 3.3 litres per 100 kilometres.
What will it cost you? A Panamera S Hybrid goes for AED 485,000 in comparison to its petrol equivalent, which will cost you AED 462,000. The Cayenne S Hybrid will cost you AED 326,000 while its petrol equivalent goes for AED 307,000.
Let’s get though to why there is little to no electric or hybrid cars available in the more mainstream market. First, where would you top up your battery? Currently, there is one single public recharge station in the UAE, that’s in DIFC. So, unless you live in a villa and have your own exclusive garaging with power points available, you’ve got nowhere to recharge the battery on your nice, environmentally-friendlier car.
Second, where will you get your car serviced? Electric and hybrid servicing is a different skill set to servicing a regular car. A car dealer would need to hire staff that can do it and would need to have different equipment and parts in stock for maintenance and repair of green cars. It seems that no one other than a handful such as Porsche are willing to make this investment unless they start to see increased demand for hybrid vehicles.
It’s a bit ‘chicken and egg’. No one will buy a green car until the infrastructure is available and no one is going to invest in the infrastructure until people start buying more green cars.
What’s the answer? A couple of things need to happen and most of them probably need to be government driven. For a start, there needs to be more financial incentives as have been introduced overseas, for example, carbon and emissions taxes for petrol polluters. This would make companies that have a fleet of company vehicles more likely to consider the emissions component of their vehicles.
In addition, more public solar powered charging stations need to be built. A country where the sun shines almost every day of the year could be an international leader on solar powered cars and technology if the initial investment were made.
I would not be surprised if we do see more legislation introduced in the UAE to cut the nation’s carbon footprint. The UAE authorities understand the issues with air pollution and the government is monitoring air pollution and murmurings have been heard regarding initiatives to cut emissions. Although, in a country where there is such a deep love of fast, powerful cars, this might not happen quickly.
Still though, the seeds are being sown and the winds of change are blowing – we may very well be witnessing the beginnings of the demise of the traditional petrol powered car.
For more about luxury green cars in the UAE, read the Aug-Sept issue of WEALTH magazine. The digital version is on the website from 5 August at www.cpifinancial.net
Original Post : http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22284/electric-and-hybrid-cars-in-the-uae
First of all i want to say that you did great job by sharing this Hybrid Cars info,
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