On the announcement of the debut of electric cars in Rwanda, among the concerns expressed by the general public was the ability of the country’s grid to support growth in consumption.

The electric vehicles are courtesy of a partnership between Volkswagen and Siemens.

The concerns are probably out of Kigali citizens’ previous experience in inconsistencies in electricity supply.

However, prior to the introduction of the electric cars, Siemens which is in charge of setting up the charging infrastructure conducted a grid assessment to establish the readiness of the grid to support the introduction.

Sabine Dall’Omo the Chief Executive of Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa said that the assessment showed that the city’s grid can support the development.  

She said that as it stands, no adjustments are required on Kigali’s grid to support the electric cars.

"The capacity, the setup are ideal at the moment and in consequent phases of the pilot with no additional investment needed.  What is required is planning on location of charging station to ensure accessibility,” she said.

Statistics from Rwanda Energy Group show that there is not adequate demand for energy in Rwanda compared to production capacity and called for firms to consume more energy.

Rwanda generates 221MW and is targeting to reach 512MW by 2024.

 However, growth in supply is projected to outstrip demand, which is currently estimated at 140MW.

With government purchasing energy from private sector operators, a surplus would potentially result into a loss for the utility company.

Rwanda’s electrical energy per capita is 56 kilowatthours (kWh) per year per person while Mauritius and Botswana have about 1975 Kwha and 1680 Kwha annually, respectively. Singapore has as high as 7913 Kwha.

The two firms, Siemens and Volkswagen are among other things seeking to collect data in Rwanda during the pilot project to inform the commercial rollout of the concept across Africa.

Dall’Omo said that Siemens is interested in details such as performance of the car on the terrain, performance of the batteries, the uptake and response of Rwandans and Africans to embrace it.

She said that this data will inform the scaling up of the concept in Rwanda and other countries.

Thomas Schäfer the Chief Executive of Volkswagen Group South Africa said that among the data they will be collecting include the charging and consumption behavior of the car and response to climatic conditions.

"We do not want to collect passenger data, we want to test the vehicles, to know what is the next best vehicle we can bring going forward,” he said.  

In Europe, electric cars have been found to have dynamic performance and can charge up to 80 per cent in about 45 minutes. 

The motor generates about 100 Killowatts. 

editor@newtimesrwanda.com