Nigerian Hybrid-engineer Introduces New Non-fossil fuel Vehicle He Names it Phoenix Kaande 7.0
The vehicle, a 7-Seater is one of a series of electric retrofits of community vehicles, like motorized tricycles, he aims to popularize in order to bring electrification to communal buses.
Mustapha Gajibo, 30, dropped out of university in his third year to actualize his dream project of converting the internal-combustion engines of commonly used vehicles in the Nigeria to electric versions.
He focused on two types of vehicles that residents often pay to ride, the 7-seater minibus and the motorized tricycles known as keke-napep.His company, Phoenix Renewables maintains a fleet of a dozen retrofitted electric minibuses capable of covering a distance of 150 kilometers on a charge.
Though he faced skepticism at first because of limited power charging infrastructure which nearly constrained the adoption of electric vehicles in the region, his doggedness appear to be paying off.
He first introduced his 12-seater bus constructed from a number of locally sourced materials in 2021 a range of 212 kilometers per charge and a charge duration of 35 minutes via a solar-powered system integrated into the back.
In a recent test run funded by the company, the buses transported 35,000 passengers in Maiduguri in just one month.
Gajibo says he plans to roll out 500 units across eight Nigerian cities in the coming months and hopes this time he’ll be able to sell them.
State and local governments are now taking notice. In early 2022, for example, the governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum, where Maiduguri is situated, commended Gajibo’s work and awarded him 20 million naira (about $45,000) for research and development, as well as 15,000 square meters of land for a factory. The Nigerian government has expressed interest in having his company build electric patrol vehicles for the police and armed forces.
Gajibo’s ultimate goal is to compete with Tesla and other bigger brands. “We want to have our vehicles driven in New York, London, Munich, and other big cities across the world,” he says.