Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the minister of energy has charged the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to begin preparation into establishing electric vehicle charging units at public places to enable government execute its plans of procuring electric vehicles in large quantities.
Hyundai Motors Ghana in collaboration with Investment Ghana Limited on Wednesday 16 June 2021, handed over a Hyundai electric vehicle to the Ministry of Energy to be used for test runs pending a large-scale production.
Receiving the vehicle on behalf of government, the energy minister explained that, a successful transition from the use of fossil fuel cars to electric vehicles can take effect only when there are infrastructure to enable the usage of such machineries and called on ECG to make provisions for electric vehicle charging units.
“A successful transition would require a public-private partnership in installing necessary infrastructure for electrical charging. Ghana cannot be left behind to become a dumping site for environmentally harmful products.
“We must be bold in developing policies that embrace these technological setups. So in our request, we have to factor in the auxiliary services that this vehicle would depend upon. It also allows ECG to be forward thinking, so if you are the managing director of ECG, you have to start factoring creating electric charging space in our markets, car parks and other public places,” Dr Prempeh said.
He urged commercial drivers to consider the use of electric vehicles to save the environment and nature.
“I think there must be a policy to encourage the use of these vehicles and make them affordable and maybe all commercial vehicles, taxis per se should start going into electrical vehicles to help protect and achieve our climate change agenda.”
Background
Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister for finance during his 2019 budget presentation charged the ministry of energy to introduce tax-free solutions to enhance the usage of full electrical vehicles to promote a technology shift from fossil-fuel based vehicles, which is a major cause of climate pollution to electric vehicles.
According to the minister, the move was part of government’s policies to promote a green and sustainable economy.
Elliot Nuertey
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