The Federal Government is incorporating electric vehicles (EVs) into the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP).
Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Jelani Aliyu also expressed optimism that the NAIDP would be passed into law before the end of the year.
He spoke during the yearly training and workshop for automotive journalists in Lagos.
The DG who joined virtually reiterated that electric vehicles remain the future of automobile globally with many countries setting target for migration into electric vehicles, saying Nigeria is also toeing similar path.
The DG who spoke at the workshop with the theme, “Migration to Electric Vehicles and Gas-powered Vehicles; Opportunities & Challenges for Nigeria,” said the EV is being incorporated into the NAIDP which he assured would be passed before the end of the year.
According to him, a lot of development like the EVs as well as gas-powered vehicles are springing up as the government fine-tunes the auto policy bill.
He said all the new developments would be incorporated in the NAIDP.
On the charging stations for electric vehicle, the DG said it is not the business of the Federal Government to put charging stations across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps FRSC, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi.
The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, said migration into electric vehicles would reduce the dangerous emissions from fossil fuel vehicles mostly second hand flooding the Nigerian market.
Oyeyemi represented by the Lagos Sector Commander, Olusegun Ogungbemide disclosed that 80 per cent of vehicles are second hand.
“Some of them are as old as 30 years and when they come in, we embrace them as new vehicles, we subject them to the same activities that the new vehicles are being subjected to, not minding the costs,” he said.
He said: “This migration is so important to Nigeria especially in the area of health. Many people are in the hospital in Lagos, which hitherto wouldn’t have been if our atmosphere has been so sanitized.
“The closest to it that we had in Lagos was during the lockdown when we had less vehicles on Nigerian roads. The commissioner for health testified to it when I visited him. During the lockdown, 70 to 80 per cent of vehicles with all these emissions were erased from the system with the exception of articulated vehicles.”
Similarly, stakeholders within the automotive sector stressed the need for government to encourage the conversion of fuel vehicles to gas powered ones, stating the electric vehicle is the new shift in the industry.
Managing Director, OMAA, Chinedu Oguegbu, said conversion of fuel vehicles to gas would save the country of foreign exchange as gas is produced locally.
Oguegbu said with African Continental Free Trade agreement, potential export of technology, products and skilled manpower to other African markets would be atualised.
Technical Lead, Jets Motor Company, Uchendu Ebuka, said it is important that Nigerians start looking into eco-friendly mobility system allowing a shift from combustion engine to electric.
Ebuka said by 2040, 33 per cent of the world car fleet would be electric while global new car sales would be 54 per cent at the same target year.
