
3,000 charging stations for electric vehicles are set to be rolled out
In the latest step to boost the greater uptake of electric cars, the Ministry of the Public Business Sector announced on Saturday that 10 companies and consortia had qualified to tender for the management and operation of electric car charging stations in Egypt.
According to the ministry, 14 companies and consortia submitted expressions of interest to manage and operate the Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Company that is still being founded.
The company is scheduled to establish and operate 3,000 charging stations for electric cars within 18 months in the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, and Sharm El-Sheikh and on various highways. The estimated cost of establishing it is reported to be LE450 million.
Charging stations for electric vehicles are one of the major prerequisites needed to encourage more people to own them. At the moment, there is little interest in electric vehicles in the local market. The latest data published by the Egyptian Group for Compulsory Vehicle Insurance showed that the total number of electric vehicles licensed in the country had reached about 380 by February 2022.
Besides working on the infrastructure, the government intends to produce Egypt’s own locally manufactured electric vehicle. In June 2021, the ministry launched the Nasr E70 electric car named after the Al-Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company, after an initial agreement with Dong Feng Motor Corporation in China.
It imported 13 cars with the aim of testing them. However, the two parties eventually failed to reach an agreement.
The project is now back on the table but with a different, as yet unnamed, Chinese company. The official announcement of the name of the company that will co-produce the Egyptian electric car will be announced after the final agreement on all the details, including the price and the percentage of local components.
The car’s price will range from LE300,000 to LE350,000 after government support, and it will run for an average of 410 km on a single charge, with a maximum speed of up to 155 km per hour.
Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly announced earlier that a cash incentive of a maximum of LE50,000 will be provided to each customer of locally manufactured electric vehicles.
Egypt’s moves to localise the electric car industry are part of the government’s plans to reduce emissions in the transportation sector by the transition to the use of environmentally friendly electric vehicles.
According to Hussein Mustafa, former head of the Egyptian Automobile Manufacturers Association, the trend to localise the industry is important as he believes that worldwide there will be no fuel-powered vehicles by 2040.
Electric vehicles have many advantages, Mustafa said, including on fuel. The government has expanded the use of electric buses to save on fuel consumption, and electric cars will also contribute to reducing pollution.
Mustafa pointed out that the local manufacture of electric cars will help to revive feeder industries and give an opportunity to export locally produced vehicles.
The prices for charging electric vehicles were announced in February this year. Charging electric passenger cars at home costs the same as residential electricity consumption, with rates varying according to consumption bracket.
An electric car uses around 20 KW/h to travel 100 km on average, and most cars require about 50 KW/h to fully recharge, a process which, according to Mustafa, does not need more than 40 minutes.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 April, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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