Staff Writer 
Tapiwa Chirume
THE growth of Zimbabwe’s Electric Vehicles (EV) market will depend on the availability of reliable and accessible charging infrastructure, and the government should make it mandatory for fuel service stations to provide EV charging facilities, a leading local corporate, Tsapo Group, has said.
This comes as Tsapo Group recently entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese EV giant BYD, a development expected to accelerate local vehicle assembly, technology, and skills transfer, while creating opportunities across the automotive value chain.
With the development having already been given the thumbs up by the government, Tsapo Group chief executive officer Patrick Masocha believes the setting up of EV infrastructure would improve consumer confidence and accelerate adoption of electric charging technology.“In order to really promote EVs and smart charging in this country, we must have a policy that helps us to roll out the charging system.
I would like to see the adoption of a policy where the government would say at every service station, it’s mandated that we should have a charging station for EVs.
That way it will boost the confidence and it will help in the adoption of EVs in this country,” said Masocha, who stated that his organisation was already in the process of establishing a nationwide charging network.
“At the moment we have quite a number of agreements and MOUs that we have signed with CMED, with Zera, with private power supply companies so that we can have a roll-out of EV chargers across the nation,” he said.
