By Lucas Ajanaku
Technology will play a very vital role as Nigeria joins the rest of the world to transit from fossil fuel use to vehicles that have zero emission, an indigenous automobile firm, Jet Motor Company, has said.
Its Co-founder/Chief Executive Officer, Chidi Ajaere, who spoke during a webinar, said the country could no longer play the ostrich as the global transition in the automotive industry is essentially focused on non-fossil fuel use.
He said one of the fundamental driving spirit of the company is to lead Africa into the new era of mobility through the deployment of technology, adding that the idea is to build solutions now that will be useful in many years to come, build electric vehicles and research in the autonomous space.
Ajaere said the biggest challenge for electric vehicle (EV) in the country remained the epileptic power supply situation, adding however that with the research and development (R&D) carried out in the sector, it has built batteries that when fully charged, would cover 260km, highly protected with IP value of IP68 and composition temperature of 600 degrees centigrade. He said its traction motor produces a torque of 950 neutron metre (NM) making it move from 0-100 in less than 15 seconds.
He said it offers fast charging capabilities to reduce downtime with a charging station capacity of 60kwh, EV has capacity to move from zero per cent state of charge to 100 per cent in two hours.
Also speaking, Head of Strategy at Jet Motor Company, Wemimo Joseph, said 90 per cent of commuters in Nigeria depend on roads, implying that most people depend on commercial transportation systems designed on internal combustion engines (ICE) to move around in a country that has poor rural and urban road infrastructure challenges.
According to Wemimo, Jet Motor Company produces EVs that are rugged with available spare parts in the country. He said the cost of maintenance is low because unlike ICEs which have over 2000 parts while in EVs there’s a few number of parts, saying they are eco-friendly, quieter with zero-emission which makes them good not only for the health but for the environment.
He said EVs will stop further depletion of foreign exchange (forex) used in importing ICE cars into the country, stop the country from being turned into a dumping ground for ICE cars and grow local content in the industry.
The company is hopeful that local and offshore funds would key into its vision. It said it is building charging stations for fleet operators that have already signed on with the firm, adding that it has invested about $11million into the R&D space.
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