Don't Buy That Hybrid Car Yet - AutoMedics Boss [Read More]

AutoMedics Boss

Hybrid cars, by the very nature of their green and environmentally friendly technology, should be the ideal automobile answer to the gridlock and carbon monoxide traffic situation in most of our major cities in Nigeria.

Given the fact that the subsidy removal argument will likely soon prevail in the oil and gas market in the country; it’s almost certain that the pump price of petrol will increase. A scenario that ordinarily should be ideal for a hybrid car owner: the technology is designed to conserve fuel usage after all.

The irony of our circumstance though is that a myriad of market-specific challenges are dwarfing the inherent advantages of the hybrid car. One of the fundamental problems is the fact that an average hybrid car is top-heavy in technology.

And that is not easy to square with the fact that majority of our roadside mechanics, who still undertake between 65 per cent to 75 per cent of auto maintenance and repair works, are not too particularly knowledgeable on the principles, diagnosis and service of automobiles with mechatronics technologies. It must be stated though that a sizeable minority of our technicians, especially those who have gone out of their way to seek further training, are coming to grips with the sophisticated technology in a hybrid car.

But my real reason for enjoining the average Nigerian car buyer to still hold back on the hybrid car is cost-of-maintenance related. Simply put, “It’s, in the words of a very shocked customer that tried to pick the power-pack (batteries) of his hybrid car in the US, “damn expensive to run a conventional hybrid car in Nigeria.”

In conclusion, I’ll ask a potential buyer of a hybrid car to conduct a simple rule-of-the-thumb enquiry in his local spareparts market on how easily the basic parts of the car can be bought. Let the result instruct your decision please.