Staff Reporter
Government has taken steps to promote the use of Electric Vehicles (EVs), as compared to fossil vehicles, citing immense benefits that are likely to be derived from their use.
This publication managed to speak to an Environment Analyst, Justice Mavengana, who revealed that an all stakeholder meeting by Government, the motoring industry and other stakeholders was held to discuss the way forward in the promotion of improved use of EVs.
“It was noted that there are immense benefits to be derived from using the Evs, such as lowering the carbon footprint and also a significant reduction on the fuel import bill, which can be diverted to other use such as purchasing of hospital equipment and medicines.
“The benefits far outweigh the use of traditional fossil vehicles. This has compelled concerned Government Ministries to facilitate the smooth importation of the EVs and also to ensure that they set up requisite support infrastructure such as the installation of charging stations,” said analyst Mavengana.
Economic analyst, Abednigo Matsika said, “The ball is now with the Ministry of Finance as it is compelled to come up with a raft of measures including classification of electric motor vehicles separately in the tariff handbooks so that targeted interventions can be made without any ambiguity.
“It would help if the Government considered reducing import duties and also waive import permit requirements to popularise the uptake of EVs. They should also throw in incentives such as reduced toll fees including city parking fees if they are to successfully convince the public to migrate from to EVs,” Matsika said.
Government has called on the private and public sector partnerships to augment the 20 EV charging ports which are; 3 from Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED) and 17 from Econet that are spread across the country. The government is also working on expediting the training of engineers and technicians to service the EVs.
The call for the adoption of EVs has increased globally as countries seek solutions to avert global warming. Conventional vehicles use an internal combustion engine which produces direct emissions through the vehicle’s tailpipe, while EVs emit zero direct emissions since they run on electricity.
