Accelerating electric mobility: A distance-metric approach to policy assessment and reform

This study presents a novel, metric-based comparative policy assessment of electric vehicle (EV) readiness, taking Saudi Arabia as the primary case study and benchmarking its policy landscape against five global comparators: China, California (USA), Netherlands, Norway, and UAE (Dubai). Using two complementary distance metrics Hamming Distance (binary policy alignment) and the L 1 Norm (magnitude of deviation) we evaluate alignment with an idealized global EV policy model across five pillars: adoption targets, charging infrastructure, consumer incentives, domestic manufacturing, and regulatory frameworks. Results show Saudi Arabia has the largest gap, with a Hamming Distance of 5 (no full matches across pillars) and an L 1 Norm of 3.4 out of 5, implying a 68% cumulative deviation. Strengths appear in manufacturing (gap = 0.4) and incentives (gap = 0.8), while major gaps persist in charging infrastructure and regulatory standards (each gap = 0.8). To integrate both metrics, we introduce a Composite Policy Alignment Index (CPAI), assigning Saudi Arabia a score of 0.84 on a 0–1 scale, the lowest alignment overall. Heatmaps highlight underperformance versus global benchmarks. The study concludes with evidence-based recommendations for closing key gaps and emphasizes the CPAI’s utility as a scalable, transparent policy evaluation tool.