Econet Subsidiary, Distributed Power Africa (DPA) is a company we have talked about here a number of times. The last we heard of them they had entered into an agreement with Mettle Solar to power Africa Data Centres’ EADC. Well, this time they have come back with something even bigger as the company is now installing electric vehicle charging stations across Zimbabwe.
“Electric vehicles have zero emissions and we are excited to add this innovation to our solar offering. We have grown our commercial and industrial energy deployments, and bundling our solar solutions with EV charging infrastructure will aid the transition to cleaner energy.”
Divyajeet Mahajan, DPA Zimbabwe’s Chief Executive Officer
This development came about after the government of Zimbabwe made a commitment to promote the use of EVs. With conventional combustion engine vehicles and other human activity contributing to climate change, EVs are one of many options that will help us better manage carbon emissions.
Zimbabwe has lagged behind on critical infrastructure like EV charging stations making EVs an unappetising prospect for the nation’s motorists. For those who already had an EV, range anxiety was a real thing as the nearest charging station may have been at their place of employment or home.
“Our charging stations will ease a major concern for consumers looking to move to EVs, by removing the fear of running out of battery on their journey,”
Divyajeet Mahajan, DPA Zimbabwe’s Chief Executive Officer
Are there any charging stations already in place?
DPA has three charging stations already installed in Msasa (Harare) and there are 17 others that are being installed at various sites across the country.
To add on to this, DPA is now offering EV charging stations as a part of its corporate and industrial solar installations. This will surely encourage businesses to replace some of the vehicles in their fleet with BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) or PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles).
Charge times
The charging stations will come in both DC and AC configurations. According to DPA Zimbabwe CEO Divyajeet Mahajan, the DC fast-charging stations have the capacity to charge the Vaya Nissan Leaf (24kWh battery) to 80% in under 30 mins.
DPA is also going to be putting these fast-charging stations at 150km intervals across Zimbabwe’s highways. This means you can complete a trip from Harare to Bulawayo in a day (in your EV) as soon as the charging stations are up and running.
On the whole EVs have a number of upsides in comparison to internal combustion engine vehicles. This is something we reported on last year when we looked into which EVs are best suited for Zimbabwe:
Electric vehicles & how their adoption in Zimbabwe could be accelerated
This is a massive deal for EV adoption in Zimbabwe. The more charging stations we see, the greater the pull that EVs will have in the country.
Cover Image Credit: Afrik21
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