Electromobiles (Pvt) Ltd will manufacture solar powered electronic cars in Sri Lanka from next year. Speaking to Daily News Business CEO/ Managing Director of Electromobiles (Pvt) Ltd Gihan Wijethunga said they expect to commence commercial production of the car in May next year.
The company will invest Rs. 30 million for the project and the project will provide around 600 direct and indirect job opportunities.
This will be a passenger car with a solar powered panel fixed on top of the car and this solar panel will generate power to the car. This electronic car needs to be charged six to eight hours per day. It will cost only Rs. 20 to Rs. 25 per kilometre.
A fully charged car could run 120 kms and solar panels will generate additional energy on the way during sunny weather where it enables the car to run an additional 30 kms without any cost.
In average, a car runs less than 50 miles per day and this is an ideal passenger car for people who focus on the environmental impact and fuel cost.
We wanted to position this as leisure drive car. We will be importing some components of the car from China and over 30 per cent value addition will be done in Sri Lanka. Our Chinese partners will provide technical know-how and other technical assistance for the project. We are planing to have our plant in Piliyandala and initially the plant will manufacture eight cars per month , Wijethunga said.
In the future when volumes increase, the company expects to increase value addition and manufacture most of the components in Sri Lanka. However there is a good response from customers even before the car has been introduced to the market. Thirty customers have already placed orders with us , he said.
After establishing in the local market company they hope to enter into export markets with Bangladesh and Cambodia being initially earmarked. Electromobiles also planing to introduce solar power conversion facility for all the vehicles in near future. At the moment, they have already introduced solar power motor bikes to the market and there are over 2500 solar powered electric bikes running on Sri Lankan roads , he said.
There is a 25 per cent duty concession for eco-friendly vehicle imports to the country. However it is important to evaluate the quality of these vehicles.
The Government should focus on providing duty concessions for eco-friendly vehicle manufactures too. Facilitating these type of industries could save foreign exchange for the country , he said.
source: Associated Press