The vehicle, a product of Stallion Motors, was first launched in November 2020 by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos.

Jelani Aliyu, director-general of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), had, in February 2021, unveiled the vehicle in Abuja.

On Tuesday, Osinbajo drove the car during an exhibition tour of made-in-Nigeria products at the opening ceremony of a five-day Nigeria@60 Expo, held at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

At the event, which was organised by the inter-ministerial committee on Nigeria@60, in collaboration with Business Visa and Training Company Limited, Osinbajo said he was impressed with the innovation and is hopeful of a bright future for Nigeria.

“A very good drive. Fantastic! It just shows what is possible. I am glad to see that this is an assembled-in-Nigeria electric car,” he said.

“You can literally charge it anywhere. I think it is a very fantastic innovation, fantastic product, and I can tell because I drove it.”

Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, said the event was aimed at showcasing what Nigeria can produce with local raw materials.

“To complement the efforts of the federal government at ensuring that we produce what we eat and eat what we produce, in this context, we are to produce what we use and use what we produce,” Mustapha said.

In a goodwill message, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general, World Trade Organisation (WTO), commended the organisers for their efforts to showcase the growth of Nigeria’s micro, small and medium enterprises.

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The company’s Vice Chairman, Haresh Vaswani, stated that Stallion planned to officially introduce to Nigeria’s market, Hyundai Kona, an electric car, which he noted had been adjudged by European motoring journalists as world’s number one.

Vaswani said well-meaning and concerned people globally were urgently making moves to save the planet by using electric cars.

He said, “After operating successfully in Nigeria for over five decades, the least our company could give back to the country and, by extension, the world is to be a leading pilot in steering the nation to the direction of clean energy use and reduction of emission.

“Not being dissuaded by the nation’s infrastructural challenges, one of our plans for this year is to introduce into the country electric vehicle and, in no distant future, embark on attitude-change campaign for a clean environment in conjugation with Hyundai.”

Describing the Kona as versatile and powerful, he said it would be the first all-electric SUV in Nigeria.

He added that its power-packed performance would provide a thrilling driving experience with high acceleration over long distances.

According to Vaswani, the driving range for Kona is 482 kilometres with an acceleration of 0 to 100km in 9.7 seconds.

He said, “The ease of charging is unmatched; one can even plug it in at home or at work and charge it for 9.35 hours for a full battery capacity. Hyundai Kona comes with five years of battery warranty and five years of vehicle warranty.

“Kona will change the way people think about going electric. It will make history as the first EV in Nigeria with local manufacturing.”

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