Last week, there was a heated debate in the Kuwait Reddit community about why anyone in Kuwait would get an electric car when fuel is so cheap. Curious to find out for myself, I contacted Mercedes and borrowed an EQS 450 electric SUV for a few days. Now, I think I have an answer.
It turns out EV owners in Kuwait never have to pay to charge their cars.
From what I can tell, all the public charging stations in Kuwait are free. There are currently over 40 different charging locations in Kuwait, including all along the Gulf Road, and in popular spots like The Avenues and 360 Mall. If you work at an office tower like Al Hamra or Al Raya, you also have EV chargers available there. That means you can charge your car for free while you’re at work or out shopping. But, in some apartment buildings like mine, there are power sockets in the parking that residents can use for free. So, when I had the car, I just plugged the car into one of the sockets and charged it overnight at no cost.
I also tried charging at one of the new EV chargers on the Gulf Road to see what that experience was like. They’re located in all the parking lots that were part of the recently refurbished waterfront. I chose to charge at the station next to the Kuwait Towers because I needed a nice shot for this post and it was super easy to use. I didn’t even need to use my own charging cable, the chargers have cables already attached. All I had to do was take the cable and plug it into the car, and it started charging right away.
I’m not saying you should buy an electric car just because you don’t have to pay for fuel. There are many other benefits to owning an EV, but free charging is definitely a nice bonus.
17 replies on “Electric Car Owners Never Have to Pay for Charging in Kuwait”
Are these fast/super chargers?
Not sure about all of them but the ones on the Gulf Road are 20kW which isn’t considered fast. Mercedes for example have the fast super chargers available at their showroom and I think various spots in Kuwait and those I think fully charge car in like 30 minutes or something like that.
This is all very interesting and useful information but MERCEDES lending out a car for a few days is even more interesting! Is this for everyone or for designated bloggers only?
its their test drive vehicle, but not sure they give it to customers to keep overnight though
I think the problem is with battery capacity and Kuwait summer heat. Heat doesn’t go well with batteries, it loses its effectiveness faster than in colder climates.
I have the volvo ev30 (2 months now) and have been keeping an eye out for just that.
I like to take a note of how much drainage happens when it’s parked in the sun. Thankfully never a large amount but it definitely happens. Then again kuwait is a tiny country anyway so I will most likely never worry about being stranded. Volvo installed a free charger for me at home
Mercedes have an emergency charging service where they’ll send a van over to you and charge your car
Hi Mark,
I had an electric car up until about 10 days ago. I ended up selling it but not for the reason you think.
When I first decided to get the car, everyone around me told me it was a bad idea and that I should just stick to a gas-fuelled car. I decided to get it anyway and let me tell you, it’s been an absolute joy to drive.
I had my car for about two years before selling it. I sold it not because of any issues with the car or the dealership, but simply because I wasn’t driving it enough to justify keeping it. I rarely drive these days and so I decided having the car around was just having an asset sit there and depreciate.
And about the charge, 100% true. I haven’t paid once to charge my car; in fact, I started using the charging station at the avenues to charge my car since I couldn’t be bothered to untangle the charger at home lol. My car would be basically full in about three and a half hours.
It’s a shame there aren’t any fast chargers in Kuwait. I’ve asked around, and there aren’t any. I was told that the one in the scientific center had DC but when I went to charge my car it was the normal charger you find everywhere else.
Electric cars are the way to go. If I were to start driving again, I wouldn’t even think twice about getting another EV.
AlRaya parking has one EV charging spot only
Im NO fan of EV autos for many reasons but i guess they do serve a purpose for some.
1) They are worse for the environment, from a production matter, than gas or diesel autos but if you feel like you’re going green, then be free. Marketing scam.
2) Extreme heat or cold weather destroy the batteries faster.
3) Replacing all the batteries usually occur between 100k-200k miles (160k-320k km) & depending on the make & model it starts from $2k-$20k (600kd-6500kd). Yeah no thanks !
Kuwait providing free charging stations is great. They dont need to but they are. In a rich country where energy is almost free & paid for by the government its a nice gesture.
If you drive an EV in front of me expect to get bullied & pushed out of the way by my large truck.
unless it’s a cybertruck good luck catching up to it lol
If they choose to take off good luck with speeding tickets. Yeah my Cyber Truck is pretty fast, not the Beast, which is super fast. However my GMC Diesel is faster but this beauty wont be in kuwait to terrorize the other autos.
Another reason why worse for the environment because the electricity source is even worse than ICE
How effective is the Air conditioning in Kuwaits temperatures?
Does it affect the range severely?
I didn’t have the car for long but the air condition is basically the same as in non electric cars. only added benefit is you can have the AC come on whenever you want since car is basically always on and doesn’t need to be started.
Who pays for the electricity?
The public transport companies should consider having e-buses immediately, if it’s going to be free charging forever.
You can charge your car for Free, but they charge you for charging your mobile phones :p