Category Archives: General

General

Transporter for Africa costs less than 10,000 euros

An electric truck for Africa? With the aCar, the TU Munich has developed a transporter that can even cope on African tracks. The minimalist among the electric vehicles will go into series production in Bavaria in 2019 and will also be offered in Germany.

The automobile is a matter of course for Germans: driving beverage crates home, gondola to work on the motorway, jetting off to the Mediterranean on holiday. It’s different in Africa: very few people there have a car, and goods are often transported by cart and bicycle. Electric cars play no role at all in Africa.

But for years now, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has been working on a vehicle concept that allows goods to be transported even in poor countries, but in an absolutely environmentally friendly way. “It’s a vehicle that people there can afford financially, it’s all-terrain capable and can transport large trucks,” explains Prof. Markus Lienkamp, head of the Department of Automotive Engineering.

Electric truck built in African microfactory

A spin-off has been created around the TUM research team: Evum Motors. The company will produce a small series of around 1,000 electric cars in a model factory in Bayerbach, Lower Bavaria, starting at the end of 2019. “Before the car can be produced in Africa, we first have to get the technical processes under control,” says project manager Sascha Koberstedt. “Then we can train people from Africa here, who in turn can pass on their knowledge locally.

The developers had already put the car through its paces for the first time in Africa in 2017 and presented it to a wider audience at the IAA. In 2020, the first microfactory in Africa is scheduled to open, offering the aCar for less than 10,000 euros. “I can put the parts of the car in the garage and you can put it together in a week,” emphasises Koberstedt.

By 2025, 110,500 cars will then be produced annually at eleven production locations worldwide. From December 2019, the minimalist e-vehicle will also be sweeping German roads. However, the price is more than twice as high, at around 22,000 euros. The reason: higher production costs and technical upgrades for road approval.

70 km/h top speed, 200 km range

The basis of the 1.5 m wide, 3.7 m long, 2.10 m high and 800 kg light vehicle is a frame made of profiled sheets, which are also used in truck construction. Although the aCar has no luxury on board, it lacks power steering, ABS, radio and air conditioning. But technically the electric vehicle is reliable. For example, it is fitted with an electric drive train from Bosch. “An electric drive is not only more environmentally friendly, but also technically the better solution, since it requires little maintenance and can develop its full torque directly when starting up,” explains project manager Martin Šoltés.

Two electric motors with 11 hp each accelerate the four-wheel-drive vehicle to a top speed of around 70 km/h. The battery has a capacity of 20 kWh and enables a range of up to 200 km. It takes seven hours to recharge at a household socket.

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General

Decentralized Energy Storage

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That batteries store electricity is a truism. But that liquid air, minus 196 degrees, can do the same, should come as a surprise to most people. The london-based start-up company highview power has proven it. Since 2018, it has been operating a demonstration plant with a capacity of five megawatts (MW) at the Pilsworth landfill site in Greater Manchester. Now the company is planning to install a 50-MW plant on the site of a former thermal power station in northern England.

Benefits:

  • Locatable Anywhere
  • Competitive Pricing
  • Long Lasting
  • Compact & Clean
  • Modular / Flexible
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General

Africa holds key for 21st century business – new McKinsey book

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Africa, the second-largest continent by size, holds the key for business operations in the 21st, and global business leaders who misunderstand the region are in danger of missing out on one of great growth opportunities in the third millennium, a new book by McKinsey & Company says.

The book, released November 20, confirms that Africa is poised for economic acceleration, similar to the Asian boom that produced what became known as the Asian Tigers. However, the authors conclude that while other regions are witnessing incremental growth, “global companies that get in early and join the African champions shaping the right strategies, can sustain double-digit profit growth over the next few decades.”

Authors of “Africa’s Business Revolution: How to Succeed in the World’s Next Big Growth Market,’’ say that the continent is bigger than most people imagine, in terms both of physical size and resource potentials.

“Africa is bigger than you think – it dwarfs China, Europe, the United States and India”, the authors of the book say. They declare that the size of the mismatch between global perception and the continent’s on-the-ground reality provoked them to write the book.

The book was written by two McKinsey and Company executives – Leke and Desvaux, both Senior McKinsey Partners and Chironga, an executive at Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banking group.

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General

Klöckner: German companies to invest more in Africa

Before the Africa conference on Tuesday at the Chancellor’s Office, Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) called on the German economy to invest more on the continent.

“Unfortunately, German companies are still turning too little to the African market,” she says to the editorial network Deutschland (Tuesdays editions). She wishes them “greater interest and commitment”.

Agriculture in Africa in particular offers a “huge opportunity”, Klöckner said. A modern, sustainable and productive agriculture could reduce local unemployment and offer young people a chance to stay. “It is set within a larger framework to combat the causes of flight in very concrete terms,” said the Minister.

At the same time, she admitted that it is not always easy for German companies in Africa. “Investments are often still associated with risks that are too great,” said Klöckner. A major problem is the lack of legal certainty.

Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will receive several African heads of state and government on Tuesday at an Africa conference in the Chancellery. This is about the so-called G20 Compact with Africa, which is intended to improve the framework conditions for private-sector investment in Africa.

Source: Epoch Times

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General

President Trump calls for more investment in Africa

President Donald Trump said that the US would extend economic support for African countries “committed to self reliance” and foster mutual job creation in a speech to African leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Trump invoked wealthy friends investing in the continent and added that Africa has “tremendous business potential …for American firms. It’s really become a place that they have to go”.

Source: African Business, October 2017

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