Adio and UK's Gridserve team up to help grow UAE's electric vehicle industry

Gridserve will join Abu Dhabi's Smart and Autonomous Vehicles Industry cluster and aims to extend partner network in the Middle East

Badr Al Olama, director general of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, right, and Toddington Harper, chief executive of Gridserve. Photo: Adio

The Abu Dhabi Investment Office has teamed up with British sustainable energy company Gridserve to help to boost the growth of the UAE's electric vehicle and smart mobility industries.

The partnership, announced on the sidelines of the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai, brings Gridserve and the recently-formed Smart and Autonomous Vehicles Industry (Savi) cluster together, Adio said on Saturday.

This will also allow Buckinghamshire-based Gridserve to tap into opportunities in the wider Middle East market, it said.

“Abu Dhabi’s Savi cluster encompasses the entire smart and autonomous mobility value chain, from the design and manufacture of vehicles to the generation, distribution and charging of the clean energy to power them,” said Badr Al Olama, director general of Adio.

“Adio's collaboration with Gridserve adds further depth to Savi and is an important step in building a next generation network to power the future of mobility in the UAE and globally.”

Savi, which was unveiled in November and centred on clean energy hub Masdar City, will develop smart and autonomous vehicles for air, land and sea use.

It is expected to contribute between Dh90 billion and Dh120 billion ($24.5 billion to $32.7 billion) to the UAE's economy and generate up to 50,000 jobs, officials said.

The global smart mobility sector is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of more than 21 per cent to about $404 billion by 2032, from $48.54 billion in 2022, data from Spherical Insights & Consulting showed.

Meanwhile, the world's self-driving vehicle market is expected to be worth $93.3 billion by 2028, from $33.48 billion this year, at a compound annual growth rate of about 23 per cent, according to Mordor Intelligence.

The UAE has set a goal of transitioning half of its vehicles on the road to electric power by 2050, with “EV charging infrastructure a key enabler of both this goal and the wider adoption of smart and autonomous vehicles”, Adio said.

Gridserve, which focuses on developing, delivering and operating customer-centric EV charging networks powered by solar energy and batteries, will also use its collaboration with Adio to increase its partner network in the region, chief executive Toddington Harper said.