With some of the e-Golf, Volkswagen is looking to bring electric mobility to Africa. Rwanda is only the beginning, hopes of the German car maker.
With a fleet of e-Golfs, Volkswagen launches its first E-mobility project in Africa. At the presentation of the project “Moving Rwanda” on Tuesday in Rwanda’s capital Kigali low-emphasised Saxony’s Minister for the economy, Bernd Althusmann (CDU), the VW Supervisory Board is a member of: “Volkswagen is demonstrating-with its commitment in East Africa, a real pioneering spirit.”
The African state is ideal for the Start in the E-mobility. “Rwanda is an emerging, dynamic state, linking economic growth and resource conservation consistent”, stressed Althusmann, who is in Kigali with his East Africa-journey through Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.
First four, then 50
During the pilot phase, there will be four e-Golf, which share a charging station in Kigali. It is planned to increase the number of cars to 50 and the of the charging stations on 15.
The charging stations infrastructure will be built by Siemens. First of all, the vehicles from the Volkswagen-own mobility service to be used.
Volkswagen sees its involvement in Rwanda and other African countries as a kind of door opener for the planned African domestic market, with 1.2 billion people.
Thomas Schaefer, head of VW South Africa
“In Rwanda there is political will, the industrialisation drive and create Jobs for the young population,” said Thomas Schäfer, managing Director of Volkswagen South Africa, the German wave. “With its eleven million inhabitants, Rwanda is not the largest country, but we can learn a lot, and later in countries such as Ghana or Ethiopia in a larger scale.”
“Africa’s youth with sustainable jobs and a better future in need of prospects in the home”, said German development Minister, Gerd Müller, at the presentation of the project in Kigali. “Initiatives such as ‘Moving Rwanda’ are another step that the Marshall plan for Africa to implement.”
As a “Marshall plan for Africa” refers to müller’s Federal Ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ), his Initiative, the economic development in Africa. So the Federal government wants to help ensure that fewer people from Africa are fleeing to Europe.
“Like the time when mobile”
VW Manager, Schaefer said there were numerous reasons why the automotive industry in Africa hardly have developed. One of the reasons was bad fuel. “The petrol sold in Africa is of low quality, modern engines can cope with that,” said Schaefer. “With electric mobility, the Problem can be avoided, because the run with any kind of power.”
At the same time could be created in Africa thanks to the many hours of sun with solar technology, a lot of electricity. “I think it can run with the cars just like you did back in the case of telephony,” says Schaefer. “Because it is a network used to in Africa, only little connections, was the breakthrough of mobile telephony here faster.”
In Rwanda, VW has been building the past year in its own factory cars. As the largest location of the wolf Burger on the continent, the Volkswagen plant near the South African port city of Port Elizabeth, where in the previous year, approximately 125,000 vehicles were produced. For the current year, Volkswagen expects production of 162,000 vehicles. The plant built for Export as the domestic market a variety of Polo versions. According to information from VW in South Africa has a market share of 20 percent.
bea/iw (PR, DW)