A junior lecturer’s dream at Makerere University that started with the aid of only one student is set to birth Uganda’s first manufactured car if Kiira Motor’s plans are anything to go by.
In an exclusive interview with Matooke Republic, Paul Isaac Musazizi, the Kiira Motors Corporation CEO intimated that plans were underway to prepare the 100-acre production plant in Jinja Industrial Area where the production will take place.
This follows a Cabinet resolution to furnish the Corporation with Shs24bn to roll out the concept that will see Ugandan made cars hit the road by 2022.
According to Musasizi, the plans are already underway to prepare the production plant at the industrial park and he is confident that by December 2019, the minimum requirements to begin initial production will be in place.
“As I speak, an industrial electricity line of 33 kilovolts has been drawn to the site and by the end of the month; an equivalent waterline will have been drawn. We have contracted someone to do the roads in the park and we already have the human capital, he said.
Delayed start explained
When Kiira Motors Corporation was launched in 2010, the plan was that assembly of cars will have started by 2018. This, however, was unable to happen due to serial financial setbacks that affected the production schedule.
The idea of making vehicles in the country started in 2007 when a group of Makerere University students and staff participated in Vehicle Design Summit in the United States, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The idea then transitioned from a mere extracurricular activity at MAK into research arm for automobile engineering until 2009 when it received money from the Presidential Initiative for Science and Technology Innovation Programme.
With the money, the Kiira Motor EV vehicle was designed followed by the solar-powered Kayoola Solar Bus – an idea that Musasizi credits to the now MAK Vice Chancellor – Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe.
“I visited Nawangwe’s office when he was still Dean and I told him that we were planning on making an electric taxi to help with the public transport system. He said; ‘don’t make taxis, they are a menace. Make a bus and put solar on it.’
“When I went back, I told the team of the Engineering students to stop the taxi production immediately. We are making a solar bus.”
The Kayoola fails road test
After the hard work and millions of dollars that were injected into the production of the bus, Kiira Motors was met with public resentment when the bus that had just been launched by President Yoweri Museveni failed to climb a hill along Bukoto road near Kabila Country Club.
According to Musasizi, the fault was a result of a human error caused by an engineer who short-circuited the bus’s electric system on the eve of its launch.
“We were all too excited after the bus successfully made the journey from Namboole Stadium to our offices in Ntinda. One of the engineers went into the bus after it returned and begun tinkering with one of the equipment of 700 volts.
He connected it to a system of just 12 volts and boom – short circuit. We tried to do the best we could in less than 24 hours to the launch and since we had some other equipment, we went forward with the launch but the gear peddles (solar buses uses one gear) failed at Kabila. It couldn’t pick power so the bus had to be towed to the top of the hill but after that, the bus drove home.”
Despite the setback, Musasizi said that KMC has since refurbished the bus with both manual and automatic gear peddles adding that production of buses, car seats, and other accessories will go on as planned.
Prices and sustainability
Although the idea of green power automobile is not an entirely new phenomenon, it is unique in a Ugandan and African setting.
This is the reason Musasizi was recently awarded as one of Africa’s best 11 individuals with groundbreaking ideas in Business Leadership at the International Forum on African Leadership in New York, USA.
But however phenomenal the Kiira Motors cars are in the areas of mobility solutions and clean energy, the prices at which they are set after they hit the market are not ones ordinary Ugandans can afford.
According to KMC’s website, the company’s products will include Sedans, pick-ups, crosser-overs, buses, and trucks. A Sedan costs $25,000, a Crossover $28,000 and $32,000 for a Pick-up.
If it is mass produced, the Kayoola bus will cost up to $58,000 which Musasizi says is a competitive price. His argument is that people will not just be buying the cars for the transport’s sake but also to support their own – the ‘Ugandaness’ if you wish to put it that way.
Musasizi also noted that if one draws a comparison with others cars on market from Japan, Germany or the USA, their average age is 16 years old yet the World Health Organisations (WHO) recommends the purchase of cars 15 years and below.
“What are people buying? You buy a Porsche and when it breaks down, they tell you the spare will be shipped in after a month. Meanwhile, you are walking. At KMC, you buy a car and you are sure that the spares are done here, the servicing and you supporting your own. That is a better deal,” he said.
The passionate CEO also noted that his marketing team is working out a payment plan which will allow Ugandans to buy the cars and pay in installments so as not to feel the pinch at one go. Their plan, he says is to make mass mobility solutions starting with the public transport sector will at first produce buses and other commercial vehicles before going into the personal vehicle phase.
“Making vehicles in Uganda is a reality and Ugandans want to be part of that. That is why we are engaging and training local talent to be able to see the plan through. We have students from outside Makerere such as Kampala University, Kyambogo University, Muteesa I Royal University, Mbarara and most recently from across the globe that come to train here.”
Musasizi believes that these young engineers will sustain the innovation at KMC through making high-quality products that will elicpse the current competition from giants such as Toyota, Isuzu among others.