Volkswagen(VW) and Siemens have partnered to launch an electric VW, dubbed the ‘e-Golf’.
Rwanda’s Prime Minister, Eduoard Ngirente, was present at the launch. The electric vehicles, are part of a pilot project, adding the fleet to the Volkswagen Mobility Solutions initiative.
In yet another first, Rwanda is the first African country where Volkswagen is testing electric cars.
VW has assembly plants in Rwanda.
The electric vehicles will produce and export the electric vehicles to Rwanda.
The cars are said to cover 230km on full charge.
During the pilot period, the vehicles will not be available to purchase, and will be in the custody of VW Rwanda.
Michaella Rugwizangoga, VW Rwanda CEO, confirmed the firm is training drivers and technicians on how to use and maintain electric cars.
The pilot project will collect data on the cars’ performance and their reception by consumers.
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Nadege Gaju, VW Sales and Marketing Head, says this data will be critical to informing future roll-outs of other phases of the project.
While VW will supply the vehicles, Siemens will set up the power stations.
Siemens, Rwanda Energy Group and Kigali City questioned the city’s ability to support such innovations that consume large amounts of power.
In light of this, Rwanda recently held assessments on Kigali’s power capacity.
The results of this assessment determined that Rwanda has surplus energy production, enough to sustain demand from electric cars.
Earlier this year, Rwanda Energy Group, urged firms to consume more energy as there is more supply than demand for energy in the country.
Rwanda aims to phase out the environmentally unfriendly combustion engines over the next ten years.
Speaking to Reuters, VW Africa boss, Thomas Schaefer said, “The plan for Africa is that ultimately, we replace the whole fleet into electric.”
