Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor plans to introduce its e-power hybrid technology car in Tunisia, its Africa head said on Tuesday, as part of plans to test demand in the African market for electric vehicles (EVs).
Africa is the world’s last remaining automotive frontier due to the low level of vehicle ownership. According to Nissan, elsewhere in the world the global motorization average is 182 vehicles per 1,000 people versus 42 per 1,000 in Africa.
But, like in many countries globally, EVs are priced out of the reach of most domestic consumers, while some countries in Africa, including SA, struggle with power outages and logjams on railways and at ports, making it difficult for global executives to invest in EVs on the continent.
“Electrification might take some time in Africa but we have a plan on how to introduce electrification, especially with our e-Power technology in some of the markets that are ready for this technology in Africa,” Sherief Eldesouky, Nissan Africa MD said.
“We launched it in Morocco with the Qashqai [last year] and in Egypt in February with the X-Trail and we’re going to go to Tunisia after that with the Qashqai,” Eldesouky said on the sidelines of Nissan’s Navara Africa expedition launch.
“We’ve been leveraging our technology because Africa is not ready in terms of infrastructure availability of electricity.”
SA is making some inroads after it published an electric vehicle policy road map last year, outlining steps to support the transition to EVs, such as government incentives.
