First local electric car unveiled in Abuja

By Nicholas Kalu, AbujaThe first fully assembled local electric car has been unveiled by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts and management of National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) on Monday 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.Jelani, explaining the workings of the vehicle to the lawmakersAliyu explained the electric car could travel for 482km on a single charge and does not use petrol nor diesel.You dont 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 the advantage of the car was that it charges through any outlet used for air conditioniners or or refrigeratorsat 220watts or 230watts from any normal outlet.It takes about 8 to 10 hours to charge overnight, while theres a fast charger that cuts it by 50 percent of about 4 to 5 hours, and theres a super-super charger that bring it down to 1 hour or less.He assured the Council is working on building charging stations along the federal highways.While responding to question on affordability and access asked by Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, he 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 vehicles produced by Innoson, Honda, Elizade, Dangote.He expressed optimism that the current price of N24 million will drop over the years, adding efforts are ongoing to build industrial parks in Edo, Kaduna and Nnewi, where more local content will be infused in the product.
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