Qatar-Germany partnership seen to accelerate EV market rollout – Gulf Times

Qatar-Germany partnership seen to accelerate EV market rollout – Gulf Times

AHK Gulf Regional CEO Oliver Oehms. PICTURE: Thajudheen.

Owing to robust government-to-government (G2G) partnerships between Qatar and Germany, discussions on hydrogen energy, efficient building technologies, and sustainable modes of transportation, especially e-mobility, are on track, an official of AHK Gulf has said.“For the past couple of years, we have had G2G-driven energy and climate partnerships; the one with Qatar is still quite young compared to the UAE. (But) there’s already an excellent communication channel at the government level.“And we, as AHK, have been, in both cases, mandated by the German government to get the private sector involved,” AHK Gulf Regional CEO Oliver Oehms told Gulf Times in an interview.Unlike Saudi Arabia, which has a nationwide grid of charging stations, Oehms said Qatar presents an interesting case for e-mobility since the country is mostly a city-state with short distances.“We see an interesting case in Qatar. Distances are short; it’s relatively easy and different from other countries like Saudi Arabia. So, there’s an interesting potential for quickly accelerating the market rollout of e-vehicles not only on a commercial but also on a private basis,” Oehms noted.According to Oehms, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is a key shareholder of Siemens, which is