From Urban Readiness to Intercity Reality
Electric vehicle adoption in the GCC has passed its first major test. Major cities such as Riyadh, Dubai, and Muscat now support dense public charging networks, and concerns about running out of power during daily urban travel have largely faded. The limiting factor has shifted from availability within cities to reliability between them.
Long-distance travel remains the decisive hurdle. The highways linking Gulf capitals stretch across deserts, low-density regions, and border crossings where charging gaps quickly translate into range anxiety. For electric vehicles to become a default choice rather than a niche option, drivers must trust that a cross-country journey is as predictable as it is in an internal combustion vehicle.
The 1,500 km Riyadh–Dubai–Muscat corridor has therefore become the focal point of the region’s next phase of electric mobility. What is emerging along this route is not a series of disconnected national projects, but a coordinated effort to design charging infrastructure for distance, climate, and cross-border travel.
Why the Corridor Matters Beyond Mobility
This corridor connects more than cities. It links trade routes, tourism flows, logistics hubs, and labor markets that underpin the Gulf economy. Reliable electric travel between capitals reduces friction for commercial fleets, regional commuters, and visitors moving across borders.
From a policy perspective, intercity charging infrastructure is also a test of regional coordination. Vehicles do not stop at national boundaries, and charging networks cannot operate in isolation. Standards, uptime expectations, pricing logic, and grid resilience must align for the system to function at scale.
Success along this corridor signals that the GCC can execute shared infrastructure with real-world usability, not just headline capacity. Failure would reinforce the perception that EVs remain an urban-only solution in the Gulf.
The UAE’s Approach: Reframing the Highway Stop
The United Arab Emirates has taken the lead in redefining what highway charging looks like in practice. In January 2026, the country launched its largest superfast charging facility at Saih Shuaib on the E11, positioned between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. With 60 high-speed chargers capable of restoring most batteries from 0 to 80 percent in around 20 minutes, the site directly targets long-distance travel behavior.
More importantly, the project reflects a broader strategic shift. ADNOC Distribution is moving away from viewing charging stations as functional stops and toward treating them as destinations. Under its expanded highway roadmap, the company plans to deploy 20 large-scale hubs by the end of 2027, with most operational by late 2026.
These sites are designed to absorb dwell time productively. Coworking areas, retail, and dining are not decorative features, but economic necessities. On long routes, charging speed alone does not define convenience. What drivers can do during that time determines whether electric travel feels like a compromise or a normal choice.
Saudi Arabia’s Strategy: Scale and Power Density
Saudi Arabia’s challenge is different in both geography and demand. Distances between major cities are longer, and residential charging plays a smaller role than in many global markets. Roughly 62 percent of public charging demand in the Kingdom is concentrated along highways, making corridor coverage the primary adoption driver.
To address this, the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Company, a joint venture between the Public Investment Fund and the Saudi Electricity Company, is pursuing a scale-first strategy. The goal is to deploy 5,000 fast chargers across 1,000 locations by 2030, with a strong emphasis on ultra-fast systems delivering up to 350 kW.
Early deployments along routes such as Riyadh–Qassim and Riyadh–Dammam prioritize power density and redundancy. The objective is not just availability, but confidence. Drivers must expect that charging on highways works consistently, without queues or degraded performance, regardless of distance or temperature.
This approach aligns with Vision 2030’s broader objective of making electric vehicles a normal part of daily life rather than a specialized alternative.
Oman’s Mandate: Closing the Final Gap
Oman faces one of the most difficult corridors in the region. The 1,030 km route between Muscat and Salalah represents a clear bottleneck for EV adoption, with long stretches of low population density and limited commercial incentives for private operators.
Rather than relying solely on market signals, the Omani government has intervened directly. Ministerial Decision No. 142/2025 requires all fuel stations, new and existing, to install EV charging infrastructure. Operators have until May 2026 to comply, with fines and potential license cancellation for non-compliance.
The regulation also sets technical standards, excluding outdated charging modes and ensuring minimum performance and safety requirements. Backed by a $260 million public allocation, the plan targets 1,000 stations nationwide within five years, including 350 public chargers by 2027.
This mandate reframes charging infrastructure as a baseline service, similar to fuel availability, rather than a discretionary upgrade.
The Grid as the Deciding Factor
Highway charging at this scale depends less on chargers than on the electrical system behind them. Ultra-fast charging concentrates demand in locations that were not originally designed for heavy load.
The North–South Interconnector Phase 2, scheduled for completion in late 2026, addresses this by extending 400 kV nodes closer to remote service areas. This reduces transmission bottlenecks and improves reliability along long routes.
In parallel, solar-plus-storage systems are increasingly used to support isolated charging hubs. In desert environments with high solar exposure and limited grid redundancy, these systems are not optional. They provide load balancing, reduce peak strain, and ensure uptime in areas where outages would undermine driver confidence.
From National Projects to a Regional System
Viewed independently, each country’s strategy reflects domestic priorities. Together, they form a coherent regional model. The UAE focuses on user experience and station economics, Saudi Arabia emphasizes power and coverage, and Oman ensures continuity through regulation.
This combination contrasts with fragmented highway charging in many other regions, where infrastructure density varies sharply across borders. In the GCC, the corridor approach treats long-distance travel as a shared problem requiring aligned solutions.
The result is a system designed for extreme heat, long distances, and predictable travel across national boundaries.
What This Unlocks for the Next Decade
If the Riyadh–Dubai–Muscat corridor performs as intended, range anxiety will cease to be a meaningful barrier in the Gulf. That shift has direct implications for consumer adoption, fleet electrification, and cross-border logistics.
It also establishes a template for future corridors linking additional capitals and secondary cities. More broadly, it positions the GCC as a reference market for electric mobility in challenging climates, where reliability matters more than density.
The transition to electric vehicles in the Gulf will not be decided in city centers. It will be decided on the highways between them, and that decision is now being engineered in concrete, copper, and policy.
