2011.
If I call it a watershed year, it would probably be seen as self-indulgent because July of 2011 marked the beginning of Drivemeonline.com. That little trivia notwithstanding, it was a pivotal year by virtue of being part of a pivotal period for the automotive market in the Middle East.
A period that marked the shift of media preeminence from print to online–as briefly as a pitstop–before being rushed on stilettos and skates by social media. It was on a crisp October afternoon in 2011—on the deck of a catamaran celebrating the advent of Volvo Ocean Race in Abu Dhabi—that Mashfique Hussain Chowdhary, the founder of Drivearabia, welcomed me into the scant society of online scribes with warmth and words as genuine as the man himself. It was the first time, I was told, online media was being let into a regional media gathering of international significance. It was seven long years before Drivemeonline.com became the first ever online media in the Middle East to be permitted by the FIA to flash a media pass at the gates of F1 Abu Dhabi—just two years after we made media history with the first ever on-air car review in the region, which a million UAE drivers still tune into every Wednesday, on their drive home.
It was in the July of 2011 that the first units of Fisker Karma were delivered to pioneer buyers of plug-in hybrids in the US—fifteen months before those of us in the Middle East automotive media would get to witness the hybrid powertrain in action, and get to push its limits.
Henrik Fisker briefing media on Fisker Karma the hybrid electric sports car
2011 got us prepared for electrification. Before Drivemeonline celebrated its first anniversary, our lives were electrified by Tesla Model S though it would be five more years before it arrived in the UAE. These fifteen years have been of rapid electrification efforts—and that journey has been two bold steps forward and one step back. Fifteen years that showed us we are indeed ready for EV but in no hurry to drop the petrolhead’s cap. We learned that evolution isn’t a switch but a journey through phases of co-existence. All through these fifteen years, Drivemeonline has been a chronicler of those milestones, quite literally by being a part of Electric Vehicle Road Trips in the UAE, Oman and South Africa that proved cross-country EV travel was feasible, fun and—the future.
10 years reviewing cars on Hit 96.7 FM, the most popular radio station in the UAE
In 2011, the mass entry of Chinese cars was still a decade away but the game was already afoot. Brands like Great Wall Motors and Geely were around with promising models—and not so promising ones—and tremors were being felt already amidst entrenched automotive loyalties. Even before I crossed over to automotive media, I had the privilege of working with some pioneering Chinese brands as an Adman. This included some models being tested against the challenges of the region—drawing plenty of smoke, heat and smirks. It was then hard to imagine an era not so distant, where the Chinese auto industry would present smoking hot models that could puncture many egos and recast the rule book for many heavyweights.
In 2011 and 2026, one thing has remained the same. The relevance of local value for global plans. In the recent reveal of their latest trajectory, Stellantis has made local sourcing their way to go and Nissan has announced the significance of India to their future product plan. Ford has returned to India, if only to produce spare parts for their models. Brands like Volvo and Zeekr have heads in Sweden and hands in China working for them. Business sense now lies in the cycle of global thinking, local execution and, again, global deployment.
15 years of doing what I love with people I admire
These years have been of deep transformation—of visionary roadmaps towards safety and sustainability—as governments envisioned, technologies realized, industries universalized and users embraced. Growth and evolution have been working side by side and there is no universal law to it—it is only when you let the chemistry play out with the region and the market, we tend to see what survives, what changes. As UAE advances towards Net Zero and safer roads, hybrids are being picked up more in our region; exclusive safety features are becoming standard; and the big cats on the road are even getting to keep their roar.
Overall, these have been a good 15 years. The next fifteen look even better.
