EV (Electric Vehicle) is the future of Bangladesh and the transport policy should go accordingly in that direction.
CEO of Ace Autos, Azharul Islam made the claim during an interview with Bangladesh Post.
He said that Bangladesh has abundance of resources for electricity, be it hydro, solar, or wind power etc and now even nuclear. Due to this, the country should look forward and encourage EVs and PHEVs (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles).
He said, “It is a very simple method and Bangladesh can have charging facilities in all the gas stations. Heading that way, the infrastructure can be prepared, brands will be eager to come in and government can revise the EV duties to make it more convenient. EV and Hybrids have similar or the same duties, if I am not mistaking, which makes the EVs very expensive.” Pollution has to be decentralized from the city. The vehicles are creating excess emissions. In some developed countries, EVs are very common as an initiative to counter pollution, he added. Azharul Islam shared that Great Wall Motors (GWM), the mother company of Haval is very concerned about keeping lower ‘Carbon Foot Prints’ not just in terms of performance but also in production. GWM is the first Chinese brand that became member of the World hydrogen council. They are working on creating the next stage of hydrogen fuel vehicle.
“We will be seeing that very soon also in Haval.
We are about to launch the first EV brand in Bangladesh in June-July this year. Haval will be the first name to do so. Tesla type of technologies will be available for the mass. At the same time, hybrid production is also on going,” he said.
He said that the production of Haval includes an L.E.M.O.N pate technology as the surface of the car underneath that makes the cars light as well as echo-friendly.
When asked to comment on the transport policy, he said, “I believe that the government policy is a proper set however, they should encourage newer brandnames into the transport market so that there is healthy completion and better products come in which are more environment friendly.”
The carbon emission factor should be taken into consideration. The government should have rating bodies to judge the vehicles in terms of carbon emission, security etc. Only safe and sound cars should be on the streets of the country and the cars emitting black fumes should be taken off.
Regarding some improvements he would like to see in the transport sector, the CEO highlighted that the customs policy should be equal to all the brands so that the duty and the competition remains healthy. Also, negative marketing that some brands do is a very bad practice and needs to be monitored.
He further said that people should concern themselves more about the quality of the product and not it’s country of origin.
“Everyone is using high tech products that are made in China. However, when the origin is known to be China regarding any product, there is a slight hesitation which comes from a misconception. Therefore, people need to know for themselves and focus on the quality of that they are buying,” he said.
Responding to a question regarding domestic EV assembling, the veteran automobile businessman said, “There may be some domestic production on battery powered vehicles that face some problems coming into the mainstream. This could be because the whole concept is quite new for Bangladesh and that level of quality cannot be guaranteed.”
Initiatives may have been taken in the country but the international quality cannot be ensured. Hence it is not quite up and running yet. The international companies who make this such as Thailand started decades ago and hence that kind of dependable quality cannot be expected here yet, he added. Regarding plans to start assembling in Bangladesh, Azharul Islam told Bangladesh Post that there are plans to assemble in the country but not immediately. The market is saturated with reconditioned cars. Duties need to be in favour if this scenario is to change. Few brands are doing local assembly but full quality cannot be promised. Huge investment is required because the high end technologies are not available in the country like other countries.
“However, Haval cannot take such steps because we do not compromise with quality. The sale will go up eventually if we ensure the quality hence we do not worry about the sale at the moment and our prime focus is the quality,” he said
He added that in the future, when Haval will become of that volume for such initiatives, it will look towards assembling.
When asked about the performance of the business throughout the pandemic, the CEO said that some of the brands had a rough time because of the pandemic and there were some ups and downs for Haval as well during the first half of 2020.
“However, we eventually we had a good proposition in the market after launching the new HavalJolion SUV. The growth was incredible. We specialize in the SUV segment and nowadays SUV is the number one choice for the mass,” he said.
Haval has brought this inside the general affordability ratio of the people with a starting price from only 33 lakh. It combines the luxury features with the high-tech safety features as well.
Conclusively, the L.E.M.O.N technology was demonstrated to this correspondent through a video and its benefits were highlighted.