Engines in Uganda

Outlet in the desert: who needs hybrids from Uganda There is little gold, no oil, but there is Lake Victoria, several reservoirs and an ambitious plan in the auto industry ... Outlet in the desert: who will transplant Africa to hybrids and electric cars Other electric cars and hybrids from Africa In 2008, the South African company Optimal Energy introduced the Joule, an all-electric six-seater car. Keith Helfet, who had previously worked as Jaguar's chief designer, was responsible for the exterior and interior of the car. Joule is powered by two lithium-ion batteries, recharged through a power outlet. The power reserve of each is 200 kilometers, it took seven hours to charge. By 2010, the prototype was turned into a five-seater, but it was not possible to bring the car to mass production. Since 2004, the company from Cape Town has been financed by the South African government, and when the grants ran out, the manufacturer could not find investors to develop the project. Optimal Energy manag Engines in Uganda ed to make a pilot batch of Joule electric cars when the project closed in 2012. In 2010, the production of small Solaris Elettra electric cars began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. All technologies were imported: components for Solaris Elettra came from South Korea, China and Singapore. The project was led by an Italian businessman, with major investments coming from unnamed Chinese merchants. The business model assumed that with expensive gasoline and cheap electricity, local residents would happily switch to electric cars. At first, the plant produced six electric cars a week, and during 2010, production was able to increase to 30 copies every seven days. Solaris Elettra was offered in two trim levels at a price of 12 thousand dollars (652 thousand rubles). Another eight thousand dollars had to be paid for the electric battery. Either the price turned out to be too high, or foreigners overestimated the capacity of the East African market, but over the past three years there has been no news about Solaris Elettra: it turned out to be impossible to verify whether cars are currently being produced. In 2009, students at the Polytechnic Institute of the Arab Academy in Alexandria, Egypt, presented to the public an electric concept car named after Cairo - Cairo Car. Of course, it did not reach mass production, but if one day someone writes a book about the African auto industry, the creators of Cairo Car will be among the pioneers of the electric car industry in it. © JSC ROSBUSINESSCONSULTING, 1995–2023. 18 letters@rbc.ru Quotes of world financial instruments provided by Reuters Materials marked "Company news" are published as advertising To send a message to the editors, select a part of the text in the article and press Ctrl Enter https://jiji.ug/12-engines