Tanzania now endorses e-car for Serengeti National Park
An e-vehicle PHOTO | COURTESY
Serengeti. Tanzania has endorsed a maiden rollout of electric safari vehicle at its flagship national park of Serengeti in an effort to reduce gas emissions.
Mount Kilimanjaro Safari Club (MKSC) is a pioneer tour company operating in Tanzania to release the first 100 per cent electric safaris car (e-car) in East Africa, in its latest initiative to bring down vehicular pollution within the national parks.
“The e-car reduces maintenance costs; it doesn’t use fuel as it is 100 per cent ecological charging, thanks to solar panels,” MKSC managing director Dennis Lebouteux said.
At first, Mr Lebouteux was not convinced that the technology could work in Africa, as is the case with Europe where there is ready-made infrastructure.
“But I told myself, I could try because we have a lot of solar power that can charge the vehicles. We tried with the first two cars in June and after four months of operation there has neither been a single breakdown nor service,” he explained.
Serengeti National Park chief warden William Mwakilema said he had received e-cars wholeheartedly as he believed they would help reduce pollution. Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority chief conservator Fred Manongi underscored the need for the country to embrace e-vehicles. Tanzania Association of Tour Operators chairman Wilbard Chambulo commended the project, saying e-cars were good.
“Taking into account that prices of fuel are increasing, e-vehicles are ideal because they will save foreign currencies used for importing oil. I believe tourism will receive the technology wholeheartedly,” he said.
The French Embassy representative, Mr Philippe Galli, said his country’s French companies were fully supported in campaigns against bad effects of climate change by protecting nature.
Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather within the context of longer-term average conditions.
