20 Dec 2020

Government, through the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology (MOTE) has set up a team that will implement the Electric Vehicle (EV) project.

Vice President Slumber Tsogwane told Parliament on Thursday during Leader of House’s question time that the team was comprised of different specialists who were employees of Tertiary institutions in Botswana. 

Mr Tsogwane said the team had expertise in the domains of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, industrial design, manufacturing and product designers as well as project management. 

“We are mindful of the fact that government has to play a critical role in the formative stages of the EV project. The Electric Vehicle team has a draft implementation work plan, and it is expected that the final work plan, which will detail the implementation and working modalities, will be ready by the end of December,” he said.

He added that preliminary evaluation of the Francistown College of Technical and Vocational Education (FCTVE) which has machining and welding capabilities as well as that of the former Rural Industries Innovation Centre (RIIC) workshop in Kanye had already been conducted. 

He said both facilities had been found to have good capacity to produce parts for the EV.

Mr Tsogwane said the minister of tertiary education continued to engage with the team and they had recently visited a car battery manufacturing facility in Phakalane as part of engaging and fostering partnership with the industry.

“The final technical due diligence to be conducted by the team is currently ongoing. 

This will include further visits to existing manufacturing plants or workshops in the private sector, Botswana College of Engineering and Technology (BCET) and FCTVE. 

The report from this exercise will inform the readiness of the infrastructure to be able to support the development of the EV,” he said. 

Mr Tsogwane said the operational teams would be established to get ready for the execution of the work plan. 

He said in addition to the above project, government was committed to providing an enabling business environment to attract both domestic and foreign investors to establish a manufacturing facility for electric vehicles.  

 He added that government was facilitating a start-up company in Mogoditshane to assemble electric vehicles. 

He said the company had developed a prototype, which would be rolled-out into a production centre. He said the company imported mainly electric motors from China and produced other parts locally. 

He said from the project, jobs would be created by means of upstream and downstream value chain opportunities that came with manufacturing of the Electric Vehicle such as production of batteries for the electric car as well as harnesses or cables for the EV.

He said the manufacturing plant would also create jobs as the custom clearing industry would significantly grow as well as transport and related logistical industry would be enhanced by the manufacturing of EV.

 Maun West MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando had asked the Vice President to give an update relating to local manufacture of electric car and the creation of over 100 000 jobs from the project. ends