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PAN plans electric automobiles in Nigeria

By Abdulganiu Alabi, Kaduna
28 November 2017   |   4:22 am
The Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) has said that it is partnering with other research agencies to introduce electric automobiles in Nigeria.

Managing Director of PAN, Ibrahim Boyi

The Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) has said that it is partnering with other research agencies to introduce electric automobiles in Nigeria.

Managing Director of PAN, Ibrahim Boyi, who disclosed this yesterday in Kaduna while hosting National Defence College on national tour of strategic establishments, said the company had commenced research on producing electric tricycles, but only awaiting an economic viability before introducing them to Nigerian markets.

“We are bringing our experience, expertise and funds to making this work. We are not just working on electric cars at the Peugeot Head Office in France, autonomous cars are also being researched upon,” he said.

Boyi explained that regulators are still coming up with guidelines on such technologies, but that the company is also discussing with partners on automobiles that use alternative fossil fuels and other alternative fuels like CNG.

“Because converting a car that uses CNG costs about $1,000, it is not economical to convert right now.

“And if you want to set up CNG plant, how do you go about it. Even those that use LPG for cooking have problems. We are following up and once any research makes economic sense, we will adopt it,” he said.

The PAN boss, who spoke power situation in the country, said the power companies had given them fairly relative power supply.

According to him, though power is not a challenge, but the cost of generating in-house power remains the only challenge. “Our in-house power costs us N70 per kilowatt, but the public power costs us about N25 per kilowatt,” he disclosed.

He also lamented that presently, only about 20 per cent of the production capacity is functional, saying: “We are using less than 20 per cent of our infrastructure. We sit on 33 hectares of land, we have allocated land to clusters, for others interested. For each new vehicle to be produced, you need to make new investments.

He, therefore, blamed slow progress being recorded on the present ownership structure of the company.

“Ownership of the company, which for now is transit, is one of the challenges because the present owners, AMCON, are just bidding time to get buyers, sell the company and move on,” he added.

However, Boyi said it was untrue that maintenance of Peugeot is expensive, adding that people who say Peugeot is expensive to maintain probably went to the wrong place for repairs or bought fake parts.

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