Doha Festival City (DFC) announced the completion of the first phase of 23 Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in partnership with Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), as part of Tarsheed, the National Programme for Conservation and Energy Efficiency. The inauguration ceremony was attended by engineer Rashid al-Rahimi, manager of Conservation and Energy Efficiency Department at Kahramaa, and Jihad Zarkout, assistant general manager of Basrec, owner and operator of DFC, and Robert Hall, general manager, DFC, a Kahramaa statement said. The EV charging stations, now available for public use, can be found in 46 locations across the mall in the Lower Ground Floor, near Monoprix and Sacoor Brothers and on the first floor near the VIP valet area, Harvey Nichols, and VOX. DFC has further plans to install more EV charging stations in two phases in the next two years. Engineer al-Rahmi noted that Tarsheed has completed over 100 fast electric charging stations all over Qatar. “Expansion of the network is expected to reach 250 EV charging stations by the end of 2023.” he added. Engineer Mohammed al-Sharshani, head of EV Charging Stations Unit, stated that Kahramaa, represented by Tarsheed, was keen on co-operating with all local stakeholders, both in the governmental and private sectors. Kahramaa recently signed an agreement with Woqod to supply, install, and operate 37 EV charging units across 22 different locations in Qatar. The Unity50 charging stations at DFC can charge electric vehicles with a power output of up to 50 kW and reduce charging times to less than 30 minutes. The stations are managed by the efficient “ChargeSphere – powered by Kostad” web-based control and management system to ensure cross connectivity and visibility. All stations will be monitored by Tarsheed Platform that connects all EV charging stations in Qatar, the statement added.
