Kuwaiti EV owners’ experience and recommendations for mass adoption for the world’s EV laggard

As of the end of 2024, there are only about 781 electric vehicles (EV) on the streets of Kuwait, ranking it at about the 0.03 percentile of the total car population and as the country with the lowest EVitization worldwide. In this study, we explore the reasons behind this ultra-low adoption rate from a variety of standpoints: 1. from a qualitative perspective based on deep interviews with 10 existing EV owners in Kuwait; 2. from the perspective of marketing and of capital and operational expenses by gathering the latest data from the common database of Kuwaiti automobile dealers; 3. from the perspective of governmental incentives and infrastructural development; and 4. from the technical perspective on how EVs perform in extreme heat conditions, such as those in Kuwait. From these four perspectives, we gather several reasons for the ultra-low adoption rate, and we provide a variety of possible solutions that are likely to increase the rate at which Kuwaiti residents replace their internal combustion engine automobiles with electric vehicles and, thus, lower their carbon footprint, which is one of the highest in the world.