ADWEA revealed as Tesla stakeholder

Tesla's announcement of an immiment IPO brought a surprise that dovetails nicely with other news in the Emirates. One of its investors is Al Wahada Capital Investment, part of the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA).

The electric sportscar maker revealed that Al Wahada bought a 10.3 per cent stake for $63m last August, just one month after Aabar Investments of Abu Dhabi made the first investment from the Gulf with a 3.6 per cent stake.

Now, ADWEA says it wants to set up charging points across the emirate for electric vehicles and singled out the Tesla Roadster as a car it would help market here.

It all points to an embryonic, but significant, focus on the electric vehicle here. Tesla has the cool factor and, with its Roadster capable of speeds of 250kph, it would not be impossible to imagine wealthy residents zipping along the desert highways in one.

It fits perfectly into the emirate's emphasis on carbon neutral growth through its Masdar initiatives. And it would also help utilize excess electricity at non-peak periods of the day, according to my colleage Chris Stanton.

That's because power stations are combined with seawater desalination, so their output is not simply determined by electricity consumption. There are  periods throughout the average 24-hour period in which they produce more electricity than necessary in order to meet their quota of water output. That surplus of electricity could easily be used for charging vehicles.

As with a lot of things we write about at The Grid... watch this space.