Why Nigeria must rethink green vehicles
Across the world, car lovers are turning to Plug-in vehicles, particularly electric and plug-in hybrids to protect the planet and enjoy the many cost effect of the innovation, but stakeholders in Nigeria and other African countries are still far behind in the global shift.
According to experts, electric vehicles may become world’s most desired by 2040, but only South Africa and Mauritius are making efforts to invest in electronic vehicles (EV) technology, while 80 per cent of the electric cars on road worldwide are located in the United States, China, Japan and the Netherlands.
What governments of these countries did was to take deliberate steps to form policies through a mixture of tax breaks and other measures, invest in public charging infrastructure and encouraged car drivers to switch to rechargeable EVs in the hope of reducing climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions.
Statistics show increase in EV models ranges, continuous drop in prices of batteries and growing public acceptance.Toyota Prius is currently regarded as the world’s top selling hybrid electric vehicle, with global sales of 3.7 million units through April 2016 but Managing Director Nissan sub-Sahara Africa, Mike Whitfield, whose organisation already introduced Nissan’s leading EV vehicle, Leaf to market in South Africa is optimistic that the vehicle would soon approximately account for 35 per cent of the global new electric car sales.
He said: “We are already seeing the effects of these fast-moving technologies in cars today and the most prominent being the ‘green mobility’ – where electric vehicle technology evolved.”
Although the electric vehicle market in Africa is still small, “It is poised to change if government plays key role in harnessing Africa’s carbon footprint,” the Nissan director affirmed.
Meanwhile, sales of plug-in vehicles including electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids has reached 1.5 million mark in 2015, representing about 0.1 per cent of the billion cars on the road worldwide.
South African government for instance has shown willingness to rollout large-scale electric vehicles having partnered with automakers and other stakeholders in a variety of electric vehicle expansion.
The collaboration is expected to inspire more automakers to roll-out fast charging stations by 2017 like Nissan and BMW to expand the national charging network for their electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Director, Nissan Nigeria Regional Project, Sorin Profir, who spoke with The Guardian recently said, Nigeria only requires necessary legislation and encouragement to have green vehicle across its cities.
Motor vehicles are considered major source of urban air pollution. While, the vehicle emissions are dropping across the world, recent particulate matter (PM10) measurement conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to determine air quality across the world, ranked Nigerian cities of Onisha, Kaduna, Aba, and Umuahia as worst in the world.
Profir said: “If you want green vehicles in Nigeria, first you must get rid of ‘tokumbo’ and create the legislation that will encourage people to buy green vehicles.
“You are not going to charge your vehicle by using generator because that is no longer green but proper legislations and reliable power supply will encourage Nigerians to buy green vehicles.”
With the rate at which global warming is escalating, Director at Lagos based Carbon Exchange Trade, Innocent Azih, said government and private players must begin to consider initiatives that would promote green vehicle in Nigeria.
According to him, green vehicles are feasible on Nigeria roads with necessary infrastructure, investments and willingness.“We have some green vehicles presently in Nigeria, though the vehicles are not necessarily fully green. Transportation contribute hugely to the climate change issue, so as the federal government is talking to investors to build renewable energy sources, we must begin to look at how to push for green vehicle,” he said.
Azih, who said Nigeria must begin to look at a holistic approach to greening the economy, disclosed that Carbon Exchange Trade would from 2017, begin to push for green vehicle and if the organisation makes headway with the campaign, Nigerians would begin to see tricycles, cars and other public transport fleets that are green.Just as the situation is across the world, he urged the federal government to begin to look at policies that would create national focus on the issue of green vehicles.
He said: “It is going to give a very significant lift to the economy because across the world mass transit buses are now running fully green in favour of those cities. That is possible here if government can look at that.”He lamented that civil organistions and the media, who are suppose to bring up such discussion have not really lived up to expectation because most people do not understand the need for green vehicles.
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