Replace Official Vehicles Of Senators With Electric Cars, Silverbird Group Founder, Ben Bruce Tells Akpabio

The founder of Silverbird Group and pro-environment activist, Ben Murray-Bruce, has said that he has made up his mind to campaign for the ban of combustion engine vehicles in Nigeria by 2035.

The former legislator also said he would advise his ‘friend’ Godswill Akpabio who is the current Senate President to ensure that official vehicles in the Senate are replaced with electric vehicles.

Ben Bruce made his intentions known in a video shared on his official Twitter handle.

He said, “For as long as I can remember, I have been a lover of nature, I love trees, plants, and the seas. I am pro-environmental, and so when I won the Senate seat to represent Bayelsa East in 2015, I was already focused on the protection of our environment and the importance of going green. During my tenure as a serving senator between 2015 and 2019, I made my voice heard in the campaign for Nigeria to turn its back on combustion engine cars and instead embrace environmentally friendly electric cars.

“I had to practice what I preached, so I bought an electric car and drove around Abuja and to the Senate. I have made up my mind to continue to campaign for the ban of combustion engine cars by 2035 and for houses to have solar panels to augment the power supply by 2030.

“The advantages of electric cars are just so many, and that’s why the whole world is accepting it. Electric cars are more efficient and cheaper to maintain than combustion engines and also have a longer life span. Electric cars have fewer engine parts than combustion engines.”

In 2019, the former Senator made a case for phasing out petrol cars in a bill read on the floor of the Senate.

But the bill for an ‘Act to Face Out Petrol Vehicles in 2035 and Introduce Electric Vehicles’ was shut down by Senator Ike Ekweremadu who argued that the use of electric cars does not require special legislation.

Ben Bruce in a fresh argument said that for Nigeria to develop it must move from 20th-century technology to 21st-century technology.

According to him, Nigeria’s automobile policy must reflect the adoption of cleaner energy transport systems.

The former senator said Nigeria’s automobile policy is archaic and needs to conform with 21st-century technologies.

“I will personally speak with my friend and the new President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio to ensure that all new vehicles purchased by the Senate are either electric or hybrid and most likely this will set the tone for all government, and Parastatals to do the same,” Ben Bruce said.

Nigeria has removed fuel subsidy leading to a hike in petrol prices to over N500 per litre and the costs of maintaining cars have jerked by over 300 per cent, according to analysts.

But the adoption of electric cars as alternatives for petrol and diesel cars is still very slow.

A typical case is the launch of electric cars by Stallion Group in 2020. In 2022, the Head of Media and Marketing, Stallion Motors, Sonu Singh, said the company has only sold 120 units of Kona since its launch in 2020.

One of the major challenges facing electric car adoption in Nigeria is the assembling of the charging infrastructure as well as spare parts and specialized mechanics.

UK has banned the production of petrol engine cars by 2030.

Mckinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm said by 2035, the world’s major automotive markets in the European Union, the United States and China will sell only Electric Vehicles (EVs).