As Kenyans continue to whine over some duff tuk-tuk coming outta Laikipia, Nigeria is showing the way on what real innovation is. Her automobile company JET Motor Company has unveiled the nation’s first electric vehicle called JET EV.
According to Naija Stories, the prototype of the machine was taken on a 300km test drive from Lagos to Benin. Before the test drive, the manufacturer already got a fund backing of $9 million (N3,487,500,000) backing from Canadian-based Africa Development Capital, Techpoint reports.
The company was founded in 2017 and two years after started an automobile series called the JET Mover which consists of fine customizable mini-buses. The company’s director of sales and marketing, Rupani Sanjay, said that the buses can be customized into whatever purpose like a tour bus, cargo, medical, school bus, etc.
https://twitter.com/NigeriaStories/status/1285975983045124099
“We wanted to create a global product that is built to last. We were obsessed with getting it right because, if our vehicles can work well on Nigerian and African roads, they can succeed anywhere in the world,” he spoke about the manufacturing process.
The sales director went further to say that the plan of the company is to build the Tesla of Africa, adding that they plan to introduce other types of vehicles like SUVs and sedans by 2022. Sanjay added that the vehicle can cover a distance of 300km on a single charge.
- Ethiopian Army blamed for crashed Kenyan Plane
- Breaking-Police helicopter goes down in Meru(photos)
- A Bus Driver, 52 Deliberately Crashed And Killed 21 People After His House Was Demolished
Elsewhere in Ugandan students from Makerere University have successfully concluded the production of their first set of electric buses. Pictures shared on Twitter showed different luxurious buses and people boarding one of them to their destinations. Many people expressed joy at the innovation.
A twitter user, Grace John, said Africa would be very proud of what they did. Another with the name Papa Kea on the platform enthused about how Uganda is the new “Wakanda”, a reference to the self-sufficient African world in the popular movie, Black Panther.