How to Cross the Chasm for the Electric Vehicle World’s Laggards—A Case Study in Kuwait

Abstract

Ever since the discovery of oil in 1938, the State of Kuwait has increasingly sought out international brands in the car market due to the high purchasing power of Kuwaiti nationals. However, the makers of electric vehicles (EVs) have not been able to penetrate this market, with the exception of innovators and early adopters. The phenomenon in disruptive innovation theory—called “Crossing the Chasm”—regarding a mass market appeal has not yet occurred in Kuwait. Through deep interviews with 12 Kuwaiti owners of EVs and automotive dealers who sold either EVs or Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), 10 key reasons for this phenomenon have been previously revealed, which were used to develop an extensive questionnaire. A total of 472 car drivers aged from 18 to 30, identified as the “early majority”, completed the questionnaire to achieve the objective of identifying the factors required to create a mass market for EVs in Kuwait. The results demonstrated that potential customers highly preferred three different types of attributes of EVs: environmental, financial, and technological. There were significant differences in the identified attributes preferred by Kuwaiti individuals for EVs in terms of the number of cars owned and the sector of employment. Moreover, the results of our study indicate that potential customers are very willing to buy EVs in the future, considering both their financial and infrastructure attributes. There were further significant differences in the identified necessary conditions to buy EVs in terms of educational level and monthly income. This study discusses a variety of valuable promotional tactics, which may be implemented in conjunction with public incentives and policy changes in the State of Kuwait. This information is considered useful for marketers and designers who wish to tap into this lucrative market, which is significantly different from that in the global North.

Evaluating Kuwait’s Electric Vehicle Lag: In-Depth Analysis of Owner Experiences, Dealer Perspectives, and Policy Recommendations with Local Data Insights

“…This group favors the soundless engine and lack of maintenance due to its environmental friendliness. The majority of Tesla model Y and model 3 drivers are male, as women in Kuwait are reluctant to purchase vehicles without a dealership [8][9][10][11][12].…”

Reasons Why Only Kuwaiti Citizens Drive Electric Vehicles despite Being Only a Quarter of the Population

“…The primary reason is that e-mobility is superior to ICE transportation, regardless of whether the fuel source is petroleum, diesel, or natural gas, particularly when energy losses are considered. Front-end well-to-tank investigations reveal that EVs lose approximately 6% of their energy compared to 45% in petroleumpowered vehicles [14,15]. Additionally, rear-end tank-wheels studies reveal an additional 17% energy loss for EVs compared to a 35% energy loss for diesel-powered vehicles, and a 39% energy loss for gasoline-powered vehicles, where the majority of that energy is lost as excess heat that is not converted into energy for the wheels.…”

Women Will Drive the Demand for EVs in the Middle East over the Next 10 Years—Lessons from Today’s Kuwait and 1960s USA

“…This particular study is part of a project named "Breaking the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Reign: A Mixed-Methods Study of Attitudes Towards Using and Purchasing EVs in Kuwait", which is backed by the Kuwaiti Research Council and managed by the Middle East Center (MEC) of the UK-based London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) [1][2][3][4][5]. This paper is a direct continuation of a paper entitled "How to Cross the Chasm for the Electric Vehicle World's Laggard-A Case Study in Kuwait" [5].…”

“…This particular study is part of a project named "Breaking the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Reign: A Mixed-Methods Study of Attitudes Towards Using and Purchasing EVs in Kuwait", which is backed by the Kuwaiti Research Council and managed by the Middle East Center (MEC) of the UK-based London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) [1][2][3][4][5]. This paper is a direct continuation of a paper entitled "How to Cross the Chasm for the Electric Vehicle World's Laggard-A Case Study in Kuwait" [5]. That paper discussed around 10 reasons why EV adoption in Kuwait is among the lowest in the world; that is, with a population of 4.4 million, we estimated EVs on Kuwait streets as of April 2023 to be around 400 (based on EVs sales figures from 2019 to March 2023, including foreign-registered Tesla models).…”

“…They were also based on the results from a survey of 600 drivers in Kuwait with various levels of college education, from 18 to 40 years old, whom we considered to be "Early Majority/Pragmatist", as opposed to "Innovators/Tech Enthusiasts", and "Early Adopters/Visionaries", which we considered the appropriate label for current owners. We considered that the phenomenon labeled within the theory of disruption innovation and the technology-adopting life cycle as "Crossing the Chasm (Figure 1)" has yet to occur in the State of Kuwait [5,6]-that is, when the market is opened to the early majority customers who have a strong sense of practicality and want to see well-established references to support their choices to buy EVs [5,6]. The main explanation as to why EVs do not appeal to the pragmatists/early majority lies in the application of the "Technology Acceptance Model" (TAM), which advocates for new users of technology to complete two types of analysis that will determine if they adopt the technology based on its usefulness and simplicity [7,8].…”