Ethiopia bans the import of petrol and diesel vehicles. Ethiopia’s historic announcement comes at a time when various countries around the world are considering restricting the sale of vehicles that use fossil fuels. Alemu Sime, Ethiopia’s Minister of Transport, made the crucial announcement. This was during the Nation’s Logistics Master Plan announced in the Ethiopian Parliament. The minister’s announcement was that ‘only electric vehicles will be allowed to enter Ethiopia from now on’.
Many countries have already announced that they will ban fossil fuel vehicles by 2035. America, Canada, Japan, India and New Zealand are all on the same path. It is at this time that the African country of Ethiopia shocked the world by banning ICE vehicles now rather than waiting for years.
The Ethiopian Parliament had earlier approved the Green Development Master Plan for 2021-2030. As part of this, the plan is to import 1,52,800 electric vehicles in ten years. The project will also benefit from allowing only electric vehicles to enter and import into Ethiopia.
Ethiopia also exempted 15% customs duty on import of electric vehicle parts. With this, it is expected that the manufacturing factories of EVs will also increase. Companies such as Green Tech, which imports and assembles electric vehicle parts from Chinese car maker Dofeng Motors, are also active in Ethiopia. Green Tech’s plan is to build five thousand electric vehicles in this way.
Ethiopia is one of the countries that struggle to find large sums of money to import fossil fuels. The country, which is in financial crisis, spent $6 billion (approximately Rs. 49,799 crore) last year on importing petroleum products alone. Along with this, there are big changes in the power generation sector. Ethiopia has built a 30,000 MW hydroelectric project and a solar plant producing 5.5kWh/m2 per day. Following this, a crucial decision has been taken to promote electric vehicles and ban conventional petroleum vehicles.
Summary:
Ethiopia to Prohibit Importation of Non-Electric Cars