FII Institute latest report in collaboration with Arthur D. Little

The global electric vehicle transition is no longer a question of technology. More than 20 million electric cars were sold in 2025, one in every four new cars, and emerging markets such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are now adopting faster than the United States. The capital needed to sustain that momentum has not kept pace. Emerging and developing economies outside China are home to two-thirds of the world’s population but receive less than 30% of global energy investment.

Developed with Arthur D. Little, this report argues that the central challenge is a financing gap, not a capital shortage. It identifies five structural gaps holding back deployment: consumer credit designed for mature markets, the early-demand deadlock facing charging networks, under-deployed risk-sharing instruments, concentration in a single supply chain, and the untapped potential of Gulf sovereign capital.

In response, the report sets out five moves to close these gaps:

• Industrialise asset-based lending
• Underwrite early charging demand
• Redirect risk capital toward first-loss and currency protection
• Build a third supply-chain corridor connecting Africa, the Gulf and South Asia
• Establish an integrated EV-transition financing platform anchored by Gulf sovereign investors and multilateral partners

The result is a practical blueprint for turning global capital into local-currency lending capacity, so that EV investment across the Global South can scale on commercial and sustainable terms.