13 Electric Vehicle Companies That Provide Products And Services In Nigeria

13 Electric Vehicle Companies That Provide Products And Services In Nigeria.

The removal of petrol subsidies has led to a diversification of the Nigerian energy market. Companies and individuals are exploring cheaper alternative sources of energy to power their homes and vehicles.

The quest for a more efficient, cleaner and quieter source of energy has also led companies and individuals to explore the option of using electric vehicles. This has led some companies to make electric vehicles in Nigeria and to offer electric vehicle services.

Advantage of electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles are cheaper and easier to maintain and run. There's no need to change the engine oil because there's no engine. There's no need to check the transmission fluid, timing belt or spark plugs. Electric vehicles help you save money in maintenance costs.

Disadvantages of electric vehicles

People often say that electric vehicles cannot be used in Nigeria (and the rest of the developing world) because of certain disadvantages, but most of these issues have been solved and are no longer problems.

1) Cost of battery:

People say that electric vehicles are to expensive to be a practical solution in a developing country like Nigeria. The lithium-ion battery is the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, due to the cost of raw materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and the complex manufacturing process needed to create high-performance batteries. 

However, this problem has been solved in 2 ways.

A) Electric vehicles are now being sold without batteries. This makes them very much cheaper. A user can register to rent a battery and he'll only pay a small fee for the rental. He can return to the battery station when the battery is weak, pay a fee, return the weak battery and rent a fully charged battery. This is called the battery swapping system and it is often used in public transportation and logistic systems.

B) People in Nigeria already buy expensive luxury cars and so some electric vehicle makers categorise their vehicles as luxury vehicles and sell them with the batteries included.

2) It takes a long time to charge:

Some people complain that it takes hours to charge electric vehicles. They compare it to petrol vehicles that you can drive into a petrol station, fill your tank and drive off in minutes.

However, this issue has been solved in two ways.

A) The battery swapping system eliminates the need to wait for the battery to charge. You can register for the system, go to the swapping station, pay with your card, put the weak battery in the locker and another locker opens for you to take a fully charged battery. This is easily done in minutes, around the same time it takes to buy petrol at the petrol station.

B) One of the advantages of electric vehicles is that you don't have to go to the charging station to charge them. You can charge them at home. You can plug it at night before you sleep and it'll be fully charged before you wake up. Electric vehicle companies are also introducing faster charging systems and greater range so that it won't take hours before the battery is fully charged.

3) Epileptic public power supply:

Many developing countries suffer from frequent power outages and some people believe that electric vehicles would not be practical because of these outages.

However, electric vehicle charging stations do not depend solely on public power supply. Most of the charging stations are hybrid charging stations and they use a combination solar power and public power supply to charge electric vehicles. Therefore, frequent public power outages is not a problem.

Some electric vehicle makers point to the fact that Nigerians use rechargeable mobile phones without any problems, despite the power supply situation and therefore, they say that Nigerians are also able to use electric vehicles without any problems.

Mustapha Gajibo began converting petrol powered vehicles to electric power in 2017 after Boko Haram blew up the transmission lines that supplied Maiduguri with electricity, yet he was successful because he used solar power rather than public power supply.

4) Charging stations:

Some people say that there aren't enough charging stations.

Electric vehicle makers, universities, governments, private companies and other organisations are building solar charging stations every day and electric vehicles can also be charged at home.

Uses:

Electric vehicles are now being used in Nigeria as personal vehicles, they are used by delivery and logistics companies, they are being used in vehicle sharing programmes and they are being used as taxis.

These are 13 electric vehicle companies that you should know about.

Photo 4) One of Mustapha Gajibo's converted electric buses (Korope) in Maiduguri.