Did you know that Nigeria is the 12th largest oil producer in the world and the 8th biggest exporter? That makes it a mid-range powerhouse when it comes to the oil industry. Now, did you also know that Nigeria ranks at #144 on the Corruption Perception Index with a rating of 27. To put that into perspective, the rating number is between 0 and 100 where zero is really, really … [Read more...]
Solaris Elettra
Back towards the end of the time when Motoring Weekly was a podcast (at the end of 2010), we wrote a small article about a new vehicle called the Solaris Elettra - another vehicle that was supposed to be manufactured in Africa. What happened to this vehicle? The plan was simple - build an electric car in Ethiopia. The company that thought up the idea was Freestyle PLC, a … [Read more...]
New Factories in Africa and Asia
I read two interesting reports recently about the future of the industry with two new factories being proposed: one in Asia and one in Africa with a US company building in Asia and an Asian company building in Africa! BYD, the Chinese electric car and battery maker has signed a deal to build a factory in Morocco to assemble new vehicles and other equipment. Morocco is … [Read more...]
Global Vehicle Trust OX T.34
I was originally going to write an article about the missing electric sports car called the JJAD P1-E. I say missing, because it was announced with a full fanfare back in 2009 as a Tesla Roadster beater. JJAD were described as Britain's answer to Tesla and they were planning to build a car with two electric motors and lithium batteries for power. Production was expected to … [Read more...]
Kenya Cars – Mobius II
I read a really interesting article in The Economist recently about cars in Kenya. Like other countries the Government is meddling in the industry - albeit to try and boost their own manufacturers. Most cars in the market appear to be second hand and the article quoted importers as saying that as much as 90% of the market is dominated by cars that have been imported from … [Read more...]