Guard Makerere's KIIRA EV from 'valley death'

By Kant Ateenyi

The purpose of this is two-fold: First to congratulate Prof. Togboa of Makerere University and his project team led by Eng. Musasizi on a successful design of the electric car. 

Secondly, to suggest further actions on part of the design team and of the Government. In a subsequent contribution, I will share thoughts arising out of the Nov 20 - 24 international conference on Engineering and Business Education, Cape Town, where I presented a paper on what Engineering dons can do to help address sub-Sahara Africa’s problems.

The Makerere team makes the alumni and Ugandans proud. This, coming at a time of erratic politicking in the country is something to smile about. This is the second publicised successful local design on the continent.

The first was in 2008 by a team of long experienced South African engineers outside university gates in Cape Town, South Africa. Makerere’s is the first to be done within an African campus by young engineers under guidance of an academic don.  In this, they have beaten my present institution’s race towards an electric racing car. 

Given that the latter is supported by a much more developed economy, we thank President Museveni for the support and personal encouragement availed to Makerere’s researchers.

This is the way to go: and anyone having doubts should look to China – where for a long time since the 1970s, the craze for science and engineering was so intense that even the entire communist politburo was – by design – made up of engineers only!   

The design team is now eyeing the commercial transport segment of the market. On the face of it, this looks good as it is more likely to attract private funding  since there are more obvious commercial interests to serve. 

However, the team needs to look at the battery system as a matter of urgency. South Africa’s five-seater JOULE has two batteries that can take it 300 km after a seven-hour recharge cycle. This does not compare well with the two-seater KIIRA’s 80 km and four hours.  

Secondly, we should be more reserved in pronouncing the ‘greenness’ of both cars. To the extent that both use electricity as an immediate energy source, we can hype about being green. 

However, if we should look at the source of that electricity, there may be less to celebrate. In Uganda, with most electricity being hydro (a form of solar), electric cars in the country can make a genuine claim of being green. 

When the same cars are, however, run in countries with more of fossil fuel-based power stations, they could actually aggravate pollution. 

This is because of added electricity demand by the transport sector and of inefficiencies in energy conversion along the chain: chemical-thermal-mechanical-electrical- chemical-electrical-mechanical before the vehicle moves. 

The researchers, therefore, need to have a sub-team looking at alternative charging systems. I know it is difficult to get high enough charge rates from solar units. But I still think some of our young brains in the faculty should be tasked to address solar assisted recharging even as the vehicle moves.

The dynamic Vice-Chancellor has called for a partnership between the private and public sectors to move the project to commercialisation stage. This is a very delicate stage. 

While it may be difficult to resist the ‘feel good’ effect of the launch, the truth is that it is in the next stage of commercialisation that the technology needs to cross the so called ‘valley of death’.

Suitable business partners need to be found. It is necessary to partner with those sufficiently knowledgeable in MV manufacture and marketing.

Opportunistic politicians and parasitic bureaucrats must be kept at bay. It is unfortunate the project started off without initial involvement of businessmen. It is likely to take far longer to cross the dreaded valley (if ever it will). 

The Cape Town project was started by a business company: Optimal Energy (Pty) Ltd – founded in 2005. JOULE was launched in 2008; politicians and bureaucrats soon wormed their way into the project; and now – in a country with a well-established MV industry, JOULE cannot hit the road before 2014-15. 

Of the 9b Rand (About sh2.7 trillion) required to commercialise the project, government has so far provided 125 million Rand (or 1.39%) since 2006.

Now come to Kampala; factor in the low tech, the political chaos, the paper shuffling/hiding bureaucracy ---:  when do you expect KIIRA to be on Kampala roads? 

In light of the above, I think it might be better to identify one or two business oriented people from among the researchers; financially empower them to partner with a suitable manufacturer to set up a manufacturing and assembly unit in the country.

Some warning: watch whom you partner with. Some come with excessive cost burdens. Used to an expensive and domineering lifestyle, they could make the vehicle uncompetitive. The JOULE for example is expected to attract a price tag of 0.235 to 0.280 million Rand (sh70 to 84m exc. VAT). 

By careful selection of partners (e.g. from Asia), we could have a winning car!

The writer is a Ugandan engineer lecturing in Cape Town