From the first phone manufacturing factory in Africa, the tiny Eastern African country of Rwanda, 35 times smaller than Nigeria in size, has become Africa’s first country to launch Volkswagen’s electric car, the e-Golf. Through This also, Rwanda has become the first African country where Volkswagen is testing electric cars. This launch saw four of the cars unveiled on the local market with one charging station at the Volkswagen facility at Rwanda’s Special Economic Zone.
Here Is All You Need To Know
- The electric vehicles is a partnership between Volkswagen and Siemens under a pilot project.
- The electric vehicles will be added to the firm’s fleet to operate under its Mobility Solutions initiative where activities include ride-hailing, corporate car sharing and rentals.
- The Moving Rwanda Initiative will use four e-Golfs and one charging station for the initial phase of the pilot project.
- Officials say that 16 additional cars will eventually join the market, to bring the number to about 20 cars and there will be 15 charging stations spread out across Kigali.
- Siemens role in the partnership involves setting up charging stations.
- The Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen’s operations in Rwanda Michaella Rugwizangoga said the cars are fully electric, not hybrid.
- Prior to today’s launch, Siemens, alongside the City of Kigali and Rwanda Energy Group, conducted an assessment of the city’s grid to establish whether it can support innovation.
- They said that the findings showed that the city’s grid was adequate to support the charging stations at the launch and consequent phases of the pilot project.
In June this year, Rwanda Energy Group said that there was not adequate demand for energy in Rwanda compared to production capacity and called for firms to consume more energy.
No Electric Volkswagen Car For Sale Yet
The newly launched electric cars will not be sold into the market at the moment but will be under the custody of Volkswagen Rwanda during the pilot project.
The pilot project will involve data collection and analysis on aspects such as performance of the electric cars, reception by consumers, consumer trends and suitable conditions for the cars.
Nadege Gaju, the Head of Sales and Marketing, said that it’s this data that will inform the consequent rollout of the project’s other phases.
According to Michaella Rugwizangoga, the pilot project is also part of the Volkwagen’s global ambitions of phasing out the combustion engines in the next decade as the firm seeks greener ambitions.
A Look At The New Electric Cars
The electronic car will be of the Volkswagen Golf Model.
They are however not assembled in Rwanda but are produced in Germany and imported.
A fully charged car officials say can cover up to 230 Kilometres in ideal conditions. However, the distance is subject to conditions such as altitude, terrain and gradient among other factors.
Rugwizangoga said that the firm is currently training drivers and technicians on the driving and maintenance of the electric cars.
Volkswagen In Rwanda
Volkswagen entered the Rwandan market in June 2018 to assemble and also introduce a mobility solution.
During the launch of the facility in 2018, the firm said that they had the capacity to produce up to 1000 cars annually under the models (Passat, Polo, Amarok and Terramont)
It was expected to produce 90 cars by March this year.
Company executives were tight-lipped on the number of cars produced so far as well as the sales into the local market citing confidentially.
Volkswagen Rwanda’s model involves Semi Knocked Down kits during assembly.
A semi-knocked-down kit is whereby partially assembled parts and shipped in and then all put together for sale to customers.
The components of the cars are shipped from various markets such as South Africa, the US and Argentina.
They, however, disclosed that the Terramont model has the highest demand in the Rwandan market.
The ride-hailing app Move operated by the firm reported 250 drivers, 60,000 downloads with 30,000 active users.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world