Is there any sign, Africa is preparing for Electric Cars and Alternative Fueled Vehicles?
Tesla has in many ways made fully electric cars a thing, and the world has taken notice. Tesla made a profit for the first time this quarter and it’s stock value skyrocketed to over 20%. But Tesla is not the only car manufacturer dreaming to make fully electric cars mainstream. Carmakers like Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, VW BMW Jaguar, and Mercedes all have electric models already. Even as many manufacturers are venturing into the production of electric cars, they are still not being adopted in any way that will threaten the base of traditional fuel cars. This begs the question; is Africa preparing and showing any interest in electric cars for the future?
Due to the underdeveloped nature of many African economies, new technologies delay by many years before they arrive on the continent. The infrastructure that runs the electric cars of today is nonexistent. Charging stations are very expensive to build due to the special technologies they require. But, charging stations are not even half of the problems that electric cars face in becoming a thing in Africa.
African countries have suffered and continue to suffer power shortages ever since the continent realized the need for power. Regardless of its very cheap labor, lack of industrial power supply has been a big reason why heavy manufacturing is not being done in Africa, as one would expect. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is not even a single car manufacturing plant and this is due to nothing but lack of regular power supply. Many homes in sub-Saharan Africa do not even get regular power supply in a month. Nigeria is the poster child of the power problems in Africa. As the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria’s generated power from the national grid is not even to power homes and offices. Many homes in Nigeria resort to using petrol and diesel generators to run their homes and businesses. Type the word “dumsor” in any search engine (eg. Google or Bing) and you will see that many online dictionaries are telling what the meaning of dumsor is. That is how power outages have troubled Ghana and her citizens and have resulted in the term being coined to describe the frequent nature of the power outages.
Sometimes I wonder if the general availability and use of electric cars would not affect the already scarce electric power we have on the continent. According to future projections, electric vehicles will cost global electricity consumption to increase by 6.8 % in 2040. While power availability and the lack of it may be a problem for an electric drive in Africa, developing charging stations is a very capital intensive venture, which other developed countries like the US, China, and Europe have still not solved yet. We have not even talked about the desirability of electric in Africa yet. But thats a different story altogether.
Electric cars are far more expensive than petrol or deseil cars, and that does not provide enough incentive for the African continent. Currently, over 90% of vehicles on African roads are used cars from developed countries imported by individuals and a few dealers. There is a huge industry of used car market purposely targeting the African continent. Due to the low-income Companies like Copart and AuctionExport make a lot of money selling damaged(salvaged) cars to the African continent.
Let us face it, the range of current electric vehicles today is quite modest and that needs to change in order to have any chance of global adoption. Then there is the problem of charging time, which can go as high as 8 to 15 hours. Range anxiety is one of the factors making electric cars less attractive.
Should Africa or Africans be worried that their countries are lagging behind in the development and readiness for electric cars? I do not think so, electric cars are still at the experimental stage. It may take a while before electric cars may become a thing. until then, we can allow the affluent in society to experiment with them on our roads.
