First electric car fully assembled in Nigeria unveiled in Abuja

The first electric car, fully assembled locally, was unveiled by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts and Management of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

The event was a fall out of the investigative hearing into the financial activities of ministries, departments, and agencies, where the NADDC Director-General, Mr. Jelani Aliyu, had appeared and informed the lawmakers of the development.

Aliyu explained that the electric car could travel for 482km on a single charge and does not use petrol or diesel.

“You don’t need to line up at the filling station waiting for fuel. Once you charge it, you have about 482km of electric charge, no emission, no smoke, very quiet and the electric car has very far less power than the traditional petrol engine,” he said.

On charging it, he explained that the advantage of the car was that it charges through any outlet used for air conditioners or refrigerators – at 220watts or 230watts from any normal outlet.

“It takes about 8 to 10 hours to charge overnight, while there’s a fast charger that cuts it by 50 percent of about 4 to 5 hours, and there’s a super-super charger that brings it down to one hour or less.”

He assured that the Council is working on building charging stations along the federal highways.

“We are working on building three charging stations along the way. Right now we are doing three pilot programs with three universities; the University of Lagos, University of Nigeria Nsukka, and Usman DanFodio University; we hope to expand it to the private sector to build in all localities in Nigeria.

“This we believe will slowly begin to take over from petrol stations because Nigeria is a signatory to the 2016 Paris Accord,” he said.

While responding to a question on affordability and access asked by Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Benjamin Kalu said: “For the common man, we are working with three domestic banks, namely Wema, Jaiz, and Zenith banks, to provide single-digit financing for made in Nigeria vehicles or assembled in Nigeria vehicles.

“We believe it will not just be for this type of vehicle but any other vehicle produced by Innoson, Honda, Elizade, Dangote.”

He expressed optimism that the current price of N24 million will drop over the years, adding that efforts are ongoing to build industrial parks in Edo, Kaduna, and Nnewi, where more local content will be infused in the product.

Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Oluwole Oke lauded the Council for the development.

Source: The Nation