Kuwait Ports plan region's first city for electric cars

Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA) has approved a proposal to build the Middle East's first city to serve electric vehicle manufacturers, the authority said in a statement on Sunday.

In line with Kuwait's Vision 2035 economic diversification plan, the project aims to cement the country’s position as a financial and commercial hub through increasing its competitiveness and investment attractiveness.

The statement does not make clear where the project, called EV City, will be located.

The design and construction tendering process will be during the 2011/22 fiscal year, said KPA's General Manager Yousef al-Abdullah al-Sabah.

The port is able to provide all logistics services, as well as certain infrastructure, to the biggest global companies manufacturing electric cars, given that electric car makers do not use local distributors or dealers and sell their vehicles directly to consumers, noted al-Sabah.

According to a report on state-run news agency KUNA, sprawling logistics cities are to be built on recently acquired lands, which stretch over two million square metres.