Electric vehicles are a common sight on roads across the world — but not everywhere.

In Saudi Arabia, electric vehicles (EVs) account for just over 1% of overall car sales, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) “eMobility Outlook 2024: KSA Edition,” published in September 2024. Globally, about 18% of all cars sold in 2023 were electric, according to the International Energy Agency.

There are several roadblocks to the rollout of cleaner cars in the desert kingdom, but things are changing quickly.

The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Company (EVIQ) is at the forefront of that transformation. EVIQ was founded in late 2023 as a joint venture between the country’s sovereign wealth fund — the Public Investment Fund (PIF) — and Saudi Electricity Company.

By the end of 2023, there were around 285 public charging points in the country, according to the PwC report, mostly slow chargers. In January 2024, EVIQ opened its first fast charging station in the country’s capital, Riyadh. By 2030, it plans to have 5,000 fast chargers installed across 1,000 locations.