The members of the House Committee on Public Accounts and management of National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) on Monday unveiled the first 100 per cent locally assembled electric car at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.
While speaking at the short ceremony, Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Busayo Oluwole Oke ( PDP-OSUN) expressed satisfaction over the feat.
He explained that the vehicle was brought sequel to the audit query raised by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation on the activities of the Council, specifically on the utilization of the 2% and 35% levies on imported vehicles.
“It is a pleasurable drive, no noise, calm and for some of us who have had the privilege of schooling and living abroad, we know that it’s not a new thing, it’s something we’ve seen but very new in Nigeria and we want to commend the effort of the DG and then the agency.
“But you need to ask what led to the DG bringing the vehicle here. The DG brought this vehicle as evidence. He appeared before the Committee on Public Accounts, because the Auditor General raised a query on the activities of the agency and then one thing led to the other.
“The agency, what is the source of the agency, and they said the fund 2% and 35% on levies raised on importation of vehicles, so what have you done with the chunk of money? This is the evidence of what research and development has taken him. Then the members resolved that ‘gani-yafiji’, let’s see what you’ve done with tax payers’ money. It’s on that basis that we have him here.
“Ours is, you have so much in your budget, what did you do with the money? He talked about having research centres across geopolitical zones and a proof to testify and the justification of what he has done with tax payers’ money,” Oke noted.
In remarks earlier, NADDC Director General, Jelani Aliyu explained that the electric car could travel for 482km and that it does not use premium motor spirit or diesel.
“You don’t 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
“In our culture where we don’t like maintenance, this will go a long way for 100 of thousands of miles without problem.”
While responding to the charging points, the NADDC boss explained that the beauty about this car is that it charges through any outlet used for AC or refrigerator, at 220watts or 230watts in any normal outlet.
“It takes about eight to 10 hours to charge overnight, while there’s a fast charger that cuts it by 50 per cent of about four to five hours, and there’s a super-super charger that brings it down to one hour or less.”
He assured that the Council is working on building charging stations along the federal highway.
“We are working on building three charging stations along the way. Right now, we are doing three pilot programmes with three universities. University of Lagos, University of Nigeria Nsukka, and Usman DanFodio University, we hope to expand it to the private sector to build in all localities in Nigeria.
“This we believe will slowly begin to take over from petrol stations because Nigeria is a signatory to the 2016 Paris Accord.”
While responding to question on affordability and access asked by Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, he disclosed that: “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 comparative speaking, the current price of N24 million drop over the years, adding that efforts are ongoing to build industrial parks in Edo, Kaduna and Nnewi where local content will be produced.
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