Photos: Nigeria, US, Germany missing on 2040 electric vehicle adoption

• Toyota, Nissan, VW yet to sign document

Despite announcements by major countries of the world including the United Kingdom and France to phase out petrol and diesel automobiles in or before 2040, a number of nations will still be allowing the use of fossil-fuelled vehicles.

This is the fallout of the recent outcome of the COP26 summit held in Glasgow, Scotland where 33 governments signed a declaration pledging to accelerate the transition to zero emission vehicles by the year 2040, newstrends reports.

Many other nations were expected to seize the climate summit to make strong statements and commitment towards ending the petrol and diesel vehicles considered a major contributor to emissions and by extension climate change.

Germany, the US, China, Russia and Australia are among countries that did not sign the end-emission by 2040 declaration.

Nigeria, understandably being a developing country still heavily dependent on oil revenue, did not sign it either. President Muhammadu Buhari played safe by saying the nation would have its zero emission by 2060.

Not all automakers churning out EVs have signed the declaration. Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai and Volkswagen are some examples.

By implication, the full adoption of EVs and green vehicles – natural gas-powered vehicles – globally would not happen by 2040.

This means automakers will continue to produce and sell vehicles running on petrol and diesel, and baring any policy change 2060 in the case of Nigeria.

The US did not sign the declaration, even though Canada and Mexico did with several individual US states including California, Washington and New York.

However, a number of automakers with sales in the US have signed the declaration, including Ford, GM, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover.

But just a handful of automakers have signed the non-binding declaration. They are GM, Ford, Volvo, BYD Auto, Jaguar Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz.

Apart from VW, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai, Honda, Subaru and Kia are yet to sign the document.

“As automotive manufacturers, we will work towards reaching 100% zero emission new car and van sales in leading markets by 2035 or earlier, supported by a business strategy that is in line with achieving this ambition, as we help build customer demand,” the declaration states in part. Want to figure out more info about slots on mobile? Visit this portal in order to see the best mobile slots for US punters. Knowledgeable gambling specialists covered software studios, RTP, and also other features.

A number of major corporations have also reportedly signed the declaration, when it comes to making fleet purchases, with companies such as Uber, Siemens, GlaxoSmithKline and Astra Zeneca.

 

“As cities, states, and regional governments, we will work towards converting our owned or leased car and van fleets to zero emission vehicles by 2035 at the latest, as well as putting in place policies that will enable, accelerate, or otherwise incentivize the transition to zero emission vehicles as soon as possible, to the extent possible given our jurisdictional powers,” the declaration states.

Overall, the declaration itself is seen as a relatively tame gesture, committing to “rapidly accelerating the transition to zero emission vehicles to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

The signatories are said to only committing to working toward the sale of new cars and vans being zero-emission by the year 2040, with no firmer provisions, verifiable incremental steps, or enforcement mechanisms contemplated.

It’s also notable that among the major absences, Volkswagen itself has committed to offering only electric vehicles in Europe by 2035, with an aim to reach 70% of sales by 2030. But the automaker has not made a similar pledge for other regional markets, which are expected to be EV-averse for quite some time.

Toyota’s absence is said to be understandable for other reasons: the automaker has long been an EV skeptic, and has lobbied against EV adoption measures even as it is in the process of introducing its first mass-market electric models in the coming months.

A number of these major automakers sell vehicles in over a hundred countries each, so they have to take EV-averse markets into account when making sales projections for the year 2040.

The absence of China, Russia and Australia from the list of signatories is also said to be understandable as well, each for its own reasons, even as China races ahead in the region when it comes to EV adoption, outpacing Japan.

By comparison, the EVs in Russia are barely a blip on the radar, and are not expected to be a factor in annual vehicles sales until well past 2050.

One country that did sign the declaration despite a fairly low EV adoption rate and policy measures is India.

Germany’s absence from the list is considered the major surprise, despite some recent moves by the country to promote EVs on an individual city level, amid a surge in EV adoption over the past two years.

In Nigeria, although the first electric car – Hyundai Kona – has been launched, followed by electric bus, the journey to a total phase out of diesel and petrol vehicles appears still far, no thanks to poor infrastructure and weak policy implementation.

Buhari at the summit appealed for financial assistance towards meeting the commitment, adding that easier access to climate finance had become imperative in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, which battered the economies of developing countries.

He specifically stressed that greater efforts should be channelled towards assisting developing nations to meet their ‘Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) commitments through the pledges made by the developed countries to provide at least $100bn yearly.

Even as Director-General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council, Jelani Aliyu, admits that the nation had obvious infrastructure challenges, he asserts that Nigeria’s automotive industry is advancing towards actualising the manufacturing of the EVs and gas-powered vehicles, in keeping with the net-zero target by 2060.

He stated this while addressing delegates at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

According to him, the recent assembling of the EV by Hyundai (Kona) and the assembly of Auto gas-powered minibus by OMAA, a division of Kojo Motors, are all testimonies to the efforts the country is making in that direction.

He said, “Nigeria has committed to get to net-zero by 2060, I believe that is sufficient time for us to really develop the necessary alternative solutions for transportation.

“Yes, we have challenges, but we will not allow ourselves to be defined by those challenges; we will only be defined by our dreams and aspirations; we must be defined by what we can achieve.”