As the UAE accelerates its transition towards sustainable mobility, electrifying commercial fleets presents both significant opportunities and practical challenges, from operating in extreme summer temperatures to charging infrastructure, brand confidence and aftersales support. In this interview with ESG MENA, Eddy Al Chaar, https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddyalchaar/Country General Manager for Jameel Motors UAE, https://jameelmotors.com/en/discusses how Farizon https://farizonauto.ae/en/ is addressing these challenges through purpose-built electric commercial vehicles, customer-focused solutions and local service capabilities. He shares how the company aims to build fleet operators’ confidence in electric mobility while demonstrating its potential to deliver reliable, commercially viable and more sustainable transport solutions across the UAE.
1- How are you going to build up your reputation as a new name coming to the region?
We understand why fleet operators are cautious about a new name entering the market. Commercial vehicles are working assets, and the decision directly affects productivity, operating costs, and revenue. Businesses should be demanding. They need to know the vehicle will perform, the economics make sense, and, importantly, that a strong organization stands behind it when support is needed.
Our approach is to earn that confidence through evidence and experience. We want customers to put the vehicles to work, understand the technology and assess them against the measures that matter in a commercial operation: reliability, range, payload and cargo capacity, charging requirements, uptime, maintenance and total cost of ownership. These are the measures Farizon needs to prove itself on.
We are also building from a strong base. Farizon is the commercial vehicle business division of Geely, with vehicles developed specifically for new energy commercial mobility rather than conventional platforms adapted for electrification. That gives us substantial engineering capability behind the product. Jameel Motors brings more than 80 years of automotive experience, international distribution expertise and, critically, the local market knowledge and customer support needed to establish a brand in the UAE.
I do not expect reputation to come simply from putting the Farizon name into the market. It will come from vehicles performing every day, parts being available when needed, customers receiving strong aftersales support, and fleet operators seeing the commercial case for themselves. If we deliver consistently like we are on those fundamentals, the reputation follows. That is how we intend to build Farizon in the UAE.
- Commercial EVs have been encountering operational challenges mainly due to climate conditions impacting their capabilities. How did you address that for our region in terms of reliability, especially in summer?
The UAE is one of the more demanding operating environments for any commercial vehicle. In summer, fleets face sustained high temperatures alongside long operating hours, heavy utilisation, and, in many cases, significant loads. For us, reliability under those conditions is a basic requirement.
That is why Farizon vehicles have undergone summer testing in high-temperature conditions. The purpose is straightforward: to assess the vehicles in the environment our customers will actually operate them in and understand how key areas such as battery performance, range, charging and overall vehicle reliability respond when temperatures rise. Fleet operators need confidence that an electric commercial vehicle can continue doing its job through the UAE summer, not simply deliver strong figures under ideal conditions.
Farizon also has an engineering advantage in how it approaches electrification. These vehicles are developed as electric commercial vehicles from the outset, rather than conventional vehicle platforms subsequently adapted to accommodate an electric powertrain. That means architecture, efficiency, space, performance and commercial usability are built around the requirements of an EV from the beginning.
From my perspective, the real test is what happens when the vehicle enters a customer’s fleet. A commercial operator is not buying a specification sheet; they are buying a vehicle that needs to earn its place in the business every day. It has to cover the required routes, carry the required loads and remain dependable in the conditions we have here. That is the standard our customers expect, and the standard we have to deliver against. The feedback from our growing customer base so far has been encouraging, and we are confident that electric vehicles have a positive future in the commercial segment as more businesses see the practical value they can bring to their operations.
- Charging remains scarce, especially for commercial EVs how are you supporting your clients with immediate, tangible solutions?
Charging infrastructure is still developing, particularly for commercial EVs, but I think it is important to look at fleet charging differently from charging a passenger car. Many commercial fleets return to a fixed base, operate planned routes and cover predictable daily mileage. That gives operators much greater visibility over when, where and how their vehicles need to charge.
We start with the operation itself. How many kilometres does each vehicle cover? Where does it start and finish its route? How long is it parked between shifts? How many vehicles need to charge at the same time? Those answers tell us what charging set-up will work for that particular fleet, rather than applying the same solution to every business.
The V7E supports both AC and DC charging and has a WLTP range of up to 350 kilometres. For a commercial operator, the question is not simply where the nearest charger is. It is whether the vehicle can complete the work required each day and whether charging can take place during the hours it would ordinarily be off the road.
Our role is to understand the customer’s routes, mileage, fleet size, operating hours and vehicle utilisation before determining where electrification works. The vehicle should fit the business, not force the business to fit the vehicle. That is particularly important with charging, because ultimately the priority for any fleet operator is keeping vehicles on the road and the business running.
- For commercial EVs, aftersales service, including spare parts, is essential. What’s your strategy, given the logistics challenges amid the ongoing regional conflict?
For a commercial fleet, uptime is everything. These vehicles are working assets, and when one is off the road, it immediately impacts the business. That is why aftersales support and parts availability have to be built into the ownership proposition from day one.
This is an area where Jameel Motors brings significant experience. We have more than 80 years in the automotive industry, and our role with Farizon goes well beyond supplying the vehicle. We focus on having local service expertise and parts support in place so that when a customer needs us, we can respond quickly and keep downtime to a minimum.
The current regional situation naturally puts greater pressure on supply chains, and that makes planning ahead even more important. We need to understand parts demand, prioritise components critical to vehicle uptime, and avoid relying on a purely reactive model when disruption occurs. We maintain local stock of critical spare parts to support vehicle uptime (based on UIO – units in operations), with priority given to components that could have the greatest impact on fleet availability. We also have contingency measures in place to manage supply disruptions and replenish critical parts as needed. We review spare-parts stock levels periodically and track expected delivery dates to identify potential shortages early. For longer-lead-time parts, we use additional safety stock and advance ordering where required. This gives us greater visibility and helps us maintain parts availability and minimise disruption to fleet operations.
From my perspective, this comes down to being prepared. Our customers should be focused on running their fleets, not worrying about where the next spare part is coming from. Our job is to have the support behind the vehicle that keeps it working. That is what commercial customers expect from an established automotive partner, and it is what we intend to deliver for Farizon in the UAE.