FG set to build highway charging stations for electric vehicles

• Reps unveil first Nigeria-assembled e-car in Abuja

The Federal Government is set to build three electric vehicle charging stations along the highways as a pilot project to encourage people to go for e-vehicles.

The Director-General of the Nigerian Automotive Development and Design Council, Jelani Aliyu, stated this in Abuja at the unveiling of first Nigeria-assembled electric car, Hyundai Kona, by the House of Representatives.

The car was unveiled by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts and Management of National Automotive Design and Development Council at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

The event was said to be a fall-out of the investigative hearing into the financial activities of ministries, departments and agencies, where the NADDC DG, Aliyu, had appeared and informed the lawmakers about the development.

He said, “We are working on building three charging stations along the highways. Right now, we are doing three pilot programmes with three universities: University of Lagos, University of Nigeria Nsukka, and Usman Dan Fodio 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.”

Aliyu also explained that the electric car could travel 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.

He said the advantage of the car was that it could be charged through any outlet used for air conditioners or refrigerators – at 220 watts or 230 watts from any normal outlet.

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

Responding to a question on affordability and access asked by the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, he said, “For the common man, we are working with three domestic banks, namely: Wema, Jaiz and Zenith, 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 was optimistic that the current price of N24m would drop over the years, adding that efforts were ongoing to build industrial parks in Edo, Kaduna and Nnewi, where more local content will be infused into the product.

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