Varsity Don advocates electrifying tricycle engines for cheap commercial transportation

By Praise Chinecherem

Federal and State Governments, as well as the organised private sector, have been urged to fund the commercial conversion of Tricycles or auto rickshaws from its present Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to electric engines as solution to the problem of intermediate public transportation system in Nigeria.

Director, Technology Incubation Centre, TIC, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof Austen Azubogu made the call in a chat with our correspondent in Awka.

Across Nigeria, over 60 percent of the intermediate transport system, which includes movements from people’s homes to churches, schools, markets, offices and other day-to-day movements depends on auto rickshaw and shuttle buses.

These intermediate transport vehicles, in turn, use Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, whose price per litre has skyrocketed due to the removal of fuel subsidy by the Bola Tinubu administration.

Prof Azubogu believes that electrifying the petrol-powered Keke and deploying smart solar charge/swap stations for recharging the batteries will greatly reduce the cost of operating and using the intermediate public transportation services.

According to him, when the petrol engine is converted to electric power train that runs on batteries, it will reduce carbon emission, and if these batteries get recharged through solar power which is practically free, the cost of refuelling is drastically reduced and that results in reduction in what the average Nigerian spends on intermediate transportation.

“The cost of petrol per litre in Nigeria is increasing daily, and the final cost comes to the consumer. Even the income that comes to the operators is depreciating. Additionally, the fumes and carbon dioxide emitted by keke machines contribute to ozone depletion.

“What powers every electric vehicle is a battery, and this battery will be recharged or renewed at the charge/swap stations, when it gets exhausted after some time,” he said.

Azubogu, who noted that India, which also uses rickshaws for its intermediate transportation system, is already converting 10,000 auto rickshaws every month into electric, regretted that though there are efforts to do so in Nigeria, the buy-in is very poor.

He revealed that the Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) in UNIZIK had written a proposal to TETFund to fund the implementation of this initiative, starting with UNIZIK, but expressed surprise that the effort, which scaled the concept note stage, was unsuccessful at the final stage.

On the efforts in some Northern Nigeria, where electric Keke are being imported to be given on hire purchase to youths, the university don maintained that it is not the best way to go, insisting that conversion of the existing Keke is the best.

“We have over two million keke in Nigeria powered by Internal Combustion Engine, ICE, which runs on petrol; if we are to import more of the brand new keke, we are only populating the country with the chasis which we send back to India and they refurbish the body, remove the engine and put the electric drive train and sell back to us.

“But, converting saves us a lot of resources because the frame, which has a longer life span, can be converted to electric and put to better use. Why are we sending back chassis of these keke, which have no problem to India as scrap?” he queried.

The TIC-UNIZIK director, however, revealed that despite the rejection from TETFund, the university is doing crowdfunding to demonstrate the viability of the initiative.

He revealed that the research team at TIC- UNIZIK has successfully converted one TVS King petrol-powered Keke to battery-powered electric using a custom-designed integrated conversion kit.

According to him, the team is setting up the solar-powered charge/swap stations.

Explaining how the initiative was designed to work, Azubogu said, “We want to put solar panels on top of charge/swap stations that are modular, put the inverter and charge controller. Now, the keke comes and swaps its discharged battery with a fully-charged one, and the operator pays a token.

“As he conducts his business and the battery depreciates, he comes back and we do the same again. We can have these charge/swap stations deployed at convenient places such as filling stations, supermarkets, Mechanic workshops, etc.

“The Charge/swap stations are designed to be smart, in the sense that we can monitor the battery levels and inform the Keke operators when they are getting exhausted, so as not to deplete the battery beyond the rated depth of discharge charge.

“This can also be replicated on the four-wheeler just like a Shuttle bus, just have the ICE engine replaced by custom custom-designed electric drive train.”

On fears that the initiative will deplete Nigeria’s fortunes from oil, Azubogu said Nigeria is a major exporter of raw crude and a major importer of refined petroleum, adding that if the country electrifies its intermediate transportation system and still export its crude oil, that will reduce the quantum of refined products the country is importing.

According to him, the country spends more on importing refined petroleum products to power its transportation system than it makes from the exportation of crude oil.

Azubogu, who is a professor of Electronics, called on the Federal and State Governments, the National Automotive Design and Development Council, TETFund and the private sector to fund the conversion of rickshaws into electric vehicles, adding that adequate research has been conducted and it has been proven that it is doable.

He also harped on the need to deemphasize importation of such electric keke, stressing the need to support local research institutes such as the TIC-UNIZIK to ensure a homegrown system that make room for improvements on observed gaps.

“All we are asking is for the funding. And not so much money is needed because we are proposing a business plan that can yield revenue.

“All we requested from TETFund to set up two charge/swap stations and convert two keke ICE motor to electric is barely 40 million naira, because we were still at the research level.

“It is not something that importing electric motor can address. The solution must be home-grown, taking into consideration, the peculiarities of the country, and creating the room for further research and improvement on the initiative, where gaps are identified,” Azubogu maintained.