Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu commissioned Nigeria’s first locally assembled electric car by Hyundai Kona.
Speaking at the unveiling of the car in Ojo, Lagos, Governor Sanwo-Olu, who commended Stallion Group for believing in the Lagos and Nigeria dream, also hailed the company for revamping the moribund VON asset located along Lagos-Badagry Expressway.
He said: “This is one of the major industrial hubs of this nation. This is one of the major employers of labour in this country. I commend Stallion Group for revamping the asset that was going moribund. “I want to assure you that the Lagos-Badagry Expressway would be completed. The road was just a two-lane way, but the government has turned it into 10 lanes, five on both sides.
Speaking on the Hyundai Kona car, assembled by Stallion Group Automobile at Ojo in Lagos, Nigeria, Governor Sanwo-Olu said with the unveiling of the car, Nigerians can now drive electric cars, noting that Lagos remains the hub for the nation’s economy and a pacesetter in industrialisation. The Hyundai Kona car is 100 per cent electric and comes with zero emission, 482km driving range and can be charged both at home and workplace.
He said: “We are not just launching Hyundai Kona, Nigeria’s first electric car assembled in Lagos, we are indeed empowering and creating youth employment. We are also creating opportunity for teeming youths of this nation. “The future that we see is the future of technology and this is the technology that we are talking about. This is 21st Century technology that has been brought into our country. With hardcore manufacturing companies like Stallion Group Automobile, we can begin to see the need to disemphasise mono product, which is oil.
“With the innovation of Hyundai Kona, we do not need to put the pressure on what the pump price of oil is again, what the pump price of petroleum is. All the issues and fights that we are having about prices of petroleum going up and the rest of it will be a thing of the past. This is a way to go and it is the future that we are seeing now.”
Governor Sanwo-Olu while stressing his administration’s commitment to growth of businesses in the State, said Lagos State Government will partner with Stallion Group Automobile as well as private industries in the State and create an enabling environment for them to do well, so that they can create job opportunities for the youths. He also assured that Lagos State Government would be partnering through Ibile Oil and Gas and other private organisations to create different charging points in Lagos, so that people will have opportunity of where they will charge the electric cars.
He said: “This is the first electric car that we are seeing and we as the government need to partner with them. We need to create an enabling environment for them to do well, so that they can employ a lot more youths and create more jobs and pay our youths a lot more money, knowing fully well that the future belongs to you and the future is here.
“And so the state government, working with Ibile Oil and Gas will be creating different charging points in the city, so that people will have an opportunity of where they need to charge the cars. “For us we see a renewed hope, for us we see a tomorrow coming today, for us we see and believe in the Stallion dream.”
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of the Stallion Group Automobile, Mr. Rohtagi Manish, said the innovation toward building Nigeria’s first electric car was a step towards an eco-friendly green Lagos. Manish said that the materials used to assemble Nigeria’s First 100 per cent electric zero emission car was mostly sourced from local resources.
The Vehicle, when fully charged for 9hrs, 35mins could go a distance of 482km (a distance of Lagos to Warri), before it requires another charge. Governor Sanwo-Olu also took time to tour the premises of Stallion Group Automobile to see the various innovative work and assembling of various brands of vehicles by the company.
