Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The German-based company eCharge and local stakeholders have signed cooperation agreements to build more than 10,000 smart electric vehicle charging stations in the Kingdom, Amr Abdou, head of business development at the company, said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on the sidelines of the 10th Afaq economic conference being held at the Dead Sea area, Abdou said that the agreements were signed after evaluating studies prepared by a Jordanian company on the number of electric vehicles in the Kingdom.

He said that Jordan is second in the region, after Dubai, in terms of the number of electric vehicles, adding that this investment is the first of its kind in the region.

ECharge has studied the Jordanian market and its development over the past few years, which indicates a "success" in building a strategy relying on renewable clean energy through the establishment of solar and wind energy stations, Abdou pointed out.

He added that such stations would help reduce the Kingdom's oil bill which accounts for 19 per cent of the GDP.

The stations will charge vehicles in less than 15 minutes, and payments can be made through technical platforms known as "blockchains", where anyone can charge and pay through a smartphone application, he explained.

Abdou added that the stations will be distributed across all governorates in public places, hotels and malls.

He stressed that the biggest challenge facing the success of electric vehicles in the Kingdom, despite the fact that they are exempted from custom fees, is the limited availability of charging stations and the lack of maintenance centres, noting that the company will also provide relevant training to Jordanians.

*JT