Al Ghurair Mobility, part of one of the most trusted and diversified conglomerates in the region, has officially launched MHERO in the UAE, from Dongfeng Motor Corporation. This introduction underscores Al Ghurair Mobility’s long-term commitment to delivering premium automotive experiences in the region. MHERO arrives as a bold new competitor designed to challenge traditional luxury SUV expectations, bringing a highly unique positioning that merges sophisticated urban elegance with extreme-terrain capability.

Conceived as a premium SUV brand, MHERO is engineered to break conventional boundaries. By combining high-end luxury, commanding mechanical craftsmanship and intelligent innovation, the brand offers an entirely new automotive model. The UAE market introduction highlights a versatile, SUV lineup featuring two distinct models, each designed to suit different lifestyles and driving preferences.

“The UAE is a dynamic and highly sophisticated market where customers expect quality, innovation, and excellence. We are confident that, in partnership with Al Ghurair Mobility, MHERO will meet and exceed these expectations. Al Ghurair shares our long-term vision and commitment to delivering a premium customer experience, making them the ideal partner to introduce the MHERO brand in the UAE and build a strong, sustainable presence in the market.” said Wu Jinxiang – General Manager, Dongfeng Motor Corporation.

The MHERO I stands as the ultimate expression of luxury and performance within the off-roading category. Delivering 804 HP, 1,050 Nm of torque, and a combined range of 825 km, it offers exceptional power, capability, and refinement.

Expanding the brand’s portfolio, the all New MHERO II is tailored for the tech-forward adventurer, it combines advanced connectivity with cutting-edge innovations that seamlessly integrate the vehicle into a digital urban lifestyle. The MHERO II delivers 677 HP, 848 Nm of torque, and an impressive combined range of 1,300 km.

John Iossifidis – Group Chief Executive Officer, Al Ghurair said, “The launch of MHERO in the UAE marks an important milestone in Al Ghurair’s journey to shape the future of mobility across the region. Guided by our purpose of ‘In pursuit of better,’ we are proud to partner with Dongfeng to bring advanced mobility solutions to a market that embraces innovation and premium experiences. By combining Dongfeng’s global technical expertise with Al Ghurair’s deep understanding of the region, we are introducing a brand that reflects the ambition, performance and forward-looking spirit of the UAE, making it the ideal home for MHERO’s next chapter.”

MHERO’s arrival is highly relevant to the unique automotive landscape of the UAE. The existing and future model line-up is meticulously engineered to withstand the region’s extreme climate and demanding terrain, making it uniquely built for both the UAE highways and desert conditions. This dual-purpose mastery appeals strongly to a growing demographic of UAE families and city explorers who seek uncompromising capability alongside high-end prestige.

Demonstrating its concrete, long-term commitment to the UAE market, Al Ghurair Mobility has officially opened the first MHERO showroom in Deira, Dubai. This location offers customers a personalised, immersive environment to explore the vehicles’ bespoke options. To further serve customers across the Emirates, a dedicated Abu Dhabi showroom and Service Centre is also scheduled to open soon, in addition to a fully equipped Service Center in Al Quoz, Dubai, strengthening the brand’s physical presence in key metropolitan hubs.

MHERO offers a smooth, high-status driving experience designed for drivers who refuse to compromise between refinement and sheer power, whether traversing the clean, contemporary architecture of central city streets or overcoming the most difficult and unpredictable desert terrains.

Exclusive interview with Mr. Ahmed VP, KIA

The PV5 marks an important milestone in Kia’s Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) strategy. How do you see purpose-built electric vehicles transforming industries such as logistics, last-mile delivery, smart cities and urban mobility across the GCC?

Generic vehicles were fulfilling the needs of logistics and last-mile delivery for the longest time, though not efficient in various aspects, whether performance, space or safety. Purpose-built vehicles has changed this equation entirely by addressing these longstanding shortcomings with precision.

PV5, for example, comes with flexibility, next-generation technology, and practicality to address niche requirements such as commercial, leisure or lifestyle use with specific configurations – the PV5 Passenger, PV5 Cargo, PV5 Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV), PV5 Taxi, and PV5 Prime Edition. Each of these vehicles benefit from a comprehensive suite of advanced driver assistance systems like telematics, real-time diagnostics, vehicle monitoring and much more, enhancing their suitability for professional fleet applications.

Electrification is becoming a major industry transition globally. How do you view the pace of EV adoption across the UAE and wider GCC region, and what role will Kia’s EV portfolio play in shaping the company’s long-term regional strategy?

The UAE and the wider GCC has already earned the recognition of being among the world’s fastest-growing EV markets, with the UAE ranking first in Middle East EV sales for the second consecutive year. What is equally significant is the qualitative shift accompanying this growth: range anxiety and battery lifecycle concerns, once the most persistently cited barriers to EV adoption, are receding rapidly, thanks to the UAE’s expanding charging network, which now encompasses more than 2,000 stations across the country.

For Kia, electrification will remain key as we expand our EV portfolio. We already have EV9, EV6, EV5, EV3 and PV5; and, this year, we will be rolling out EV9 GT, EV6 GT, and E4, showing that we’re not slowing our EV ambitions. These vehicles are a further extension of our electrification efforts to address business needs.

Many automotive brands today are repositioning themselves as mobility and technology companies rather than traditional car manufacturers. How does Kia view its own long-term identity within this broader transformation of the automotive industry?

For Kia, our identity as a Sustainable Mobility Solutions Provider is a declaration we made deliberately at our brand relaunch in 2021, before much of the industry had begun to seriously articulate a comparable vision. Electric vehicles, hybrids, autonomous driving, PBVs and smart connectivity are products and platforms in active deployment, outlined in our Plan S strategy, which has provided the architectural framework for Kia’s evolution from a traditional automotive manufacturer to a modern, sustainable mobility solutions provider.

The PV5 has been developed as Kia’s first dedicated PBV. What were the key customer needs or market trends that influenced its design and development?

The development of the PV5 was shaped by a convergence of structural market forces.  The rapid growth of last-mile delivery to networks, shared mobility needs, the demand for more sophisticated, connected fleets, and even the growing mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) economy have collectively redefined what a commercial vehicle must deliver. What became clear in this process is that no single configuration can adequately address the breadth and specificity of these demands, and that genuine versatility in mobility solutions requires sector-level engineering.

For example, to support People of Determination passengers, we developed Kia PV5 Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV), which has dedicated wheelchair features, and optimised passenger area. Critically, it is produced as a fully integrated OEM solution, i.e. the accessibility features are engineered into the vehicle’s architecture with structural integrity, occupant safety, and long-term user experience.

Charging infrastructure continues to develop across the region. How does the PV5’s charging capability and battery offering support the practical needs of commercial operators?

The PV5 supports both AC and DC charging solutions, including DC fast charging capability which gets the vehicle charged from 10% to 80% in just approximately 30 minutes, a figure that translates into reduced downtime and higher vehicle availability. Certain variants, such as the PV5 Cargo, are available with configurations designed to meet different operational requirements, including a long-range 71.2 kWh battery offering a WLTP range of up to 416 kilometres. That range profile is comfortably capable of sustaining intensive urban deployment cycles without requiring mid-shift recharging, addressing what has been the primary commercial hesitation around fleet electrification: that EVs cannot reliably meet the demands of professional use. The PV5 is engineered to answer that concern directly, and the GCC’s expanding charging infrastructure only strengthens the case further.

As customer expectations evolve and digital technologies reshape the automotive landscape, dealerships are moving beyond one-off vehicle sales towards connected, data-driven customer relationships.

In this exclusive interview with Monzer Tohme, Managing Director, MEA & APAC, Keyloop explores how unified platforms, AI, and customer intelligence are redefining the future of automotive retail across the Middle East.

What is the fundamental change happening beneath the surface that most people are still underestimating within the automotive retail space?

The shift from selling cars to selling continuous experiences, and the data layer that makes it possible.

The change most people miss is this: automotive retail is quietly moving from a transactional model to a data-driven relationship model. Every interaction a customer has, a service visit, a finance inquiry, a test drive generates a signal. For decades, those signals were lost. Today, the dealers and OEMs who are winning are the ones connecting those signals into a single customer intelligence layer.

What’s underestimated is the compounding effect of that data. It’s not just about personalisation or marketing. It’s about predicting the next need before the customer voices it, whether that’s a service upsell, a renewal, or a new vehicle. The dealers who build that capability now will have a structural advantage that’s very hard to close later.

We often hear about digital transformation in automotive retail. In reality, what does that mean for a dealer on the ground here in the UAE?

It means removing the friction between the customer’s expectation and the dealer’s ability to deliver in real time, at every touchpoint.

UAE customers are among the most digitally sophisticated in the world. They research online, compare across brands, and expect a seamless handoff when they walk into a showroom. So for a dealer on the ground, digital transformation is not a back-office project. It is the front line of the customer experience.

In practical terms, it means a sales executive knowing a customer’s full history before the conversation starts. It means a service advisor being able to book, update, and close a job card without paper. It means the dealer principal seeing their whole business, inventory, pipeline, aftersales revenue, on a single screen, not ten spreadsheets. At Keyloop, that is exactly what we are enabling: systems that make the dealer faster, smarter, and more connected to their customer than they have ever been.

We have a sales-driven dealership model here. Do you think we will soon move towards a lifecycle or ownership-driven model?

Yes, and the smarter dealers in this region are already making that move. The question is not if, but how fast.

The traditional Gulf dealership model was built on volume, conquest, and the next sale. That worked when customers had fewer choices and lower expectations. Today, with more brands, more channels, and more informed buyers, holding on to a customer through the entire ownership journey, service, insurance, accessories, finance, trade-in, next vehicle, is far more valuable than winning them once and losing them to a competitor two years later.

The region also has some natural tailwinds. Vehicle ownership periods here are longer than many markets. Loyalty programmes are becoming more sophisticated. And OEMs are starting to push dealers toward customer lifetime value metrics, not just unit sales. The dealers who will lead the next decade are the ones who start treating the delivery of a car not as the end of the sale, but as the beginning of a relationship.

At Keyloop, our entire platform philosophy is built around that lifecycle view, giving dealers the tools to stay relevant and valuable to their customers long after the keys are handed over.

Fusion is positioned as an end-to-end platform. What was broken in the traditional dealership tech stack that required this kind of unified approach?

The old stack wasn’t one broken thing, it was five or six disconnected systems that were never designed to talk to each other.

If you walked into most dealerships in this region five years ago, you would find a DMS handling stock and invoicing, a separate CRM for sales leads, another tool for workshop job cards, a standalone finance and insurance module, and often a completely manual process for parts ordering. Each system had its own database, its own logic, its own version of the customer record. The result was that a dealer could sell a car, service it three times, and still not know the customer’s name when they called in.

◈ Fragmented customer identity: Sales, service, and finance held separate customer records with no unified view across departments.

◈ Data trapped in silos: Actionable insights sat locked inside individual systems, reporting required manual consolidation, often in spreadsheets.

◈ eInvoicing introduction: Every new tool added another point-to-point integration to maintain, creating fragility and escalating IT costs over time.

◈ Slow, error-prone workflows: Re-keying data between systems introduced errors and added minutes to every customer interaction, multiplied across thousands of transactions.

Keyloop Fusion was built to eliminate that entire class of problem. When sales, aftersales, parts, finance, and CRM all run on a single data model, the customer record becomes the source of truth that every team works from. A service advisor can see the customer’s purchase history. A sales executive can see their service loyalty. The dealer principal can see the whole business in one place. That is not a feature, it is a fundamentally different architecture that changes how a dealership operates.

For the Middle East specifically, this matters even more. Our dealership groups here are large, multi-brand, multi-site operations. The complexity they carry is enormous. A unified platform is not a nice-to-have for them, it is the only way they can scale without proportionally scaling their headcount and risk.

What kind of partnerships or ecosystem play is Keyloop looking to build here in the Middle East in 2026–2027?

We are building an open ecosystem, not a walled garden. The partnerships we are focused on fall into four areas that directly amplify what dealers and OEMs in this region need most.

Digital retail & mobility platforms: Connecting to regional marketplace and mobility platforms so dealers can manage online inventory, leads, and digital retailing from inside Fusion without channel switching.

AI and data intelligence partners: Working with analytics and AI providers to layer intelligence on top of Fusion’s data, predictive service reminders, demand forecasting, and customer churn signals.

OEM & manufacturer integration: Deeper real-time connectivity with OEMs on warranty claims, vehicle data, and campaign management, reducing friction between the factory and the showroom floor.

Financial services & insurance: Embedding regional finance and insurance providers, including multiple finance options, natively into the sales workflow, so F&I becomes seamless rather than a separate conversation.

Beyond technology, we are also investing in our implementation and consulting partner network in the region. The Middle East has some of the most ambitious dealership groups in the world. Groups that operate across the GCC, into Africa, and into South Asia. Supporting their scale requires a strong local partner ecosystem, not just a product.

The strategic intent is clear: Keyloop becomes the platform that other automotive technology companies want to connect to, not the system that sits in isolation. We want to be the operating system of the dealership, with a marketplace of capabilities around it. That is the direction for 2026 and into 2027, and the Middle East is a priority market for proving that model out.