Arpico Finance plans to electrify the drive
View(s):Richard Pieris Arpico Finance (RPAF) has stepped in to introduce an ambitious eco drive project towards pollution-free, cleaner transport across Sri Lanka, officials of the company said.
Moving in a different direction from other finance companies, RPAF has ventured into electric car sales while building infrastructure necessary for such vehicles to run on local highways and roads without any hassle, they disclosed.
A network of charging stations will be set up countrywide by the company enabling owners of electric vehicles to charge up while introducing more electric cars to the local market, RPAF CEO K.M.M Jabir told the Business Times.
39 charging stations will be set up at Arpico centres in Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa provinces including near the Katunayake and Mattala Airports as well as Colombo Hilton and other fuel filling stations during the initial stage of the eco drive project.
“EV Lanka (Pvt) Ltd is the importer of the electrical vehicles who are supplying the maintenance and services in case of a vehicle break down. But they are giving two years warranty and 10 years recommendation for the life of the battery,” said Suranga Silva, Manager, Corporate Leasing of RPAF.
The company launched the Nissan Leaf electric car last Saturday and intends to introduce other brands of electric vehicles as well.
Through RPAF, EV Lanka is planning to market the Eco drive vehicles such as Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi CA Miev, Toyoto Rav 4 EV, Honda FIT EV, BMW, etc, he revealed.
Charging stations operating with solar energy will be able to charge the vehicle battery within 15-30 minutes. For the full charge, 24 units of power are needed and with the full charge a vehicle can travel 150 km or more, he disclosed.
Referring to the newly introduced Nissan Leaf electric car, he said that this car can travel around 150 km on a full charge while it would take roughly four hours to charge using household electricity. It consumes around 15 units of electricity for a
complete charge.