By Kenneth Udeh
Daniel Mbamala is MD/CEO of Unique Marvel Nigeria Ltd and Regional Partner, Electric Motor Vehicle Company (EMVC), an indigenous Nigerian Electric Vehicle manufacturing and assembly company. At a recent encounter with Saturday Sun, he explained many things about the electric vehicles, including why such are needed in Nigeria. He also spoke about the workings of his firm’s brand of electric vehicles and the innovation they’re bringing to the Nigerian auto space.
Passion for innovation
From my childhood, I’ve always been passionate about new innovations and doing something different. I’ve always loved to identify myself with ideas that are unconventional. While growing up, I had to meet some friends. This actually happened some years ago and we asked one another what we wanted to be in the future. Some said they wanted to be noble professionals like lawyers, doctors, engineers and so on. But I remember in that conversation, I told them that I wanted to be different. I said I wasn’t going to choose any career out of business, but I was going to be in a business that deals with innovative ideas, by doing something new with things that are already in existence.
What gave me the courage is that the world is gradually moving into this direction (electric vehicles) and Nigeria is not different from the world. No matter how long it takes us, we are still going to move towards the destination of the world. Every part of the world is going green talking about Green Energy and Renewable Energy.There’s always the popular saying by the people that “there’s no electricity, this is new”, and they ask about its maintenance but I say if we don’t start now, one day we are still going to start. So it’s better we start early and queue in directly towards where the world is going. If you go to most parts of the world now, everyone is going green and moving towards electric vehicles. So Nigeria will just have to follow suit and be part of it.
Strategies
We have strategies that we have mapped out to be able to meet up. Because people are always conscious of the fact that they might not have electricity to power these vehicles, we have already identified those areas that might demoralise people to patronise our products.
We have already proffered those solutions before even producing the vehicles. For example, recharging the vehicles which the buyers and end users will be concerned about has been taken care of . Also questions about servicing, sourcing of spare parts have been taken care of because we have a policy that when you buy our vehicles you are entitled to one year free servicing and we are the ones to bear the cost. That means that if anything happens, just give us a call. We shall come to your location and get it fixed. Again, all our vehicles come with a five-year warranty, every vehicle that comes from us has a five year warranty. The free servicing lasts for one year and we also have a policy for people who make bulk orders. For places that are populated with our vehicles, we provide them with what is called a “Battery Library”. A battery library is like a filling station but in this case, it is designed to charge multiple lithium-ion batteries at the same time.
These battery libraries are positioned in key locations that are populated with our vehicles across the cities to enable battery swap should the need arise. The battery libraries are powered by both solar and conventional electricity. For example if an estate places an order for 100 units of our vehicles, at the point of supply we also provide the power library. You can choose to keep your battery inside the library to charge you car directly, just the way you charge your mobile phone, all you have to do is to plug into the library and put the socket into your vehicle to charge. Or you can take out the low battery from your vehicle, put it inside the battery library and replace it with an already charged one from the battery library, or you can put your battery in and let it charge after a few hours. A fully charged battery can give you a 250 kilometre ride before it runs down. The fact that we have these things on ground is the reason we feel this is the way everyone should go. So we are doing it with every sense of commitment.
Maintenance cost of the vehicles
The costs are much lower than the normal costs, like one of our products called the “Olori’’ is a Tricycle meant for conveying cargoes from warehouses , we also have the “Igwe’’ which is just like what we call Keke Marwa. , the prices are lesser or almost same as the other ones we have in the market. But ours has additional features like Air condition, Fan, Reverse Camera and Doors for additional protection and security. And for the power supply, these vehicles come with litmus battery, not just any battery and our partners and suppliers are fully aware that we are coming from a place where we have power problems, so these batteries are designed in a way that it will last long. If you know what it takes to have a ride of about 250 kilometres, then you’ll calculate how long it will take you to use the Igwe in an estate or area as a driver and then you’ll know how long it will take for the battery to get drained. We can also upgrade the vehicles for solar power, meaning that while riding, the solar system is charging your battery. The power library can also be installed if you request it. It’s size is not so big and it doesn’t occupy a lot of space.
Changing people’s perception
As the popular saying goes, seeing is believing. The greatest way to achieve this is when people start seeing these vehicles functioning optimally. As I’m talking to you, people have confirmed these vehicles in Abuja. They have seen it. It’s noiseless and does not make sounds, the air and noise pollution is not there.
To give it a full charge it takes up to 6 to 7 hours. Each vehicle comes with a battery but the customer can choose to purchase an extra battery so this helps you to keep on.
Plans to push the new revolution
We have intensified our marketing and awareness and people are testifying to the fact that it’s not as difficult as they thought and that it’s simpler than the ones they are used to. Nigerians are people that like to see before they believe, it’s not about talking but bringing it out and showing people. We have gone as far as offering people free rides in some locations in the country as a way of proving to the people for about three days, so by the time we are done, you will confirm it yourself. Some have tried it and have started using it in places like Kano, Abuja and even Lagos. We plan on setting up charging stations around places that are saturated with our vehicles. We shall have points where you can drive in and get it charged.
The vehicles have a display that shows the level of battery usage, just like we have on our phones which reflects that if your battery is low you can drive to those stations and get it charged. With a full charge which costs about 1000 naira, you can cover a distance of 250 kilometres, which 50 litres of petrol can’t do for you when using a petrol powered vehicle. It’s going to have a huge positive impact on the cost of Transportation.
Profit advantage for keke drivers over Petrol keke?
With our vehicles, you will be ready to compete if you’re operating in an area where prices are unregulated. If others are charging let’s say 300 naira per drop you can charge less and you’ll have higher demand for your services, because you’re not spending a dime on fuel and it costs far less to power your vehicle. So you will have such an advantage over your contemporaries. Instead of hiking your price and bringing down your own as you are using our product to compete effectively and make more profit.
Space for partnership
We are open for long term and short term partnership. So for now, we are looking out for regional partners and distributors. At the moment we have people who work with us. We have an assembly plant here in Nigeria with qualified engineers who assemble the vehicles. The parts are produced in different parts of the world and we assemble them here. We source our parts from different parts of the world where we get the best quality. If you see the vehicles physically you’ll know how far we have gone to give Nigerians what we are giving them.
Government support
In every part of the world, government supports initiatives like these, whether you approach them or not, because this growing initiative improves the well being of the people through the creation of jobs and the green environment initiative. At the moment we are focusing on improving our brands and we don’t intend approaching the Federal Government for now.
We are sure that our improvements will get the attention of the Federal Government and they can now ask for how they will come in. For now we are trying to show strength that we have the capacity to deliver.
Power charging stations
Yes we have installed some in certain locations, and anywhere we are going for bulk supplies, we install the power libraries too. We have the battery libraries on standby by and it’s free for those that make bulk purchases. For example if you are buying the “Igwe ‘’ – which is like the Keke but different because it has doors. It’s a tricycle but with air-conditioner, fan, reverse camera and radio system. But these are not available in the other one. So if we are making a supply of 10 or 15 units of Igwe it comes with the power library. And we don’t charge for the power library. It’s free. The power libraries can charge up to about 20 batteries simultaneously using electricity and solar. We have plans for massive enlightenment workshops.