I've always wondered why there is no Nigerian car yet and you have nigerians working for all other international carmakers.

So lets reignite the topic of a Nigerian car, remember the 1997 Z600 by Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu? I remember at that time it was all over the news. That car never came to fruition and Other african countries like South africa and Senegal are just begining to show interest in it.


Izuogu's 90% local content nigerian made car prototype.

What if Nigeria had a national car, , what would it be? thats why I've started the blog naijacar to research ways it can be it can be done. I personally am an amateur car designer and believe strongly in nigerian talent, my portfolio  is at cardesignnews

The first thing that comes to mind is that a nigerian car should be cheap for the masses, much like what the 1903 Ford model T was to USA. we could learn from the renault engineered dacia logan http://renault-logan.eastrolog.com/



the sri-lankan micro car http://www.globalautoindex.com/maker.plt?no=2309&g=Micro


Many other developing nations are leaving nigeria behind in the car maufacturing sector, its high time we show what we can do.

Hey that's some real good talk there.

We have people who can make these cars working for other companies abroad and so on. I think it'd be real awesome if some cars can be made for those who can't spend a fortune on all these exported cars. U digg?

Anyways i like this design of urs.

Wasn't there are car in the late 80s to early 90s made by some guys in the former Anambra state area? If my memory serves me right, the name was anamco. In the end, it went the way of all government projects unfortunately.

Bottomline, we can and should make a car. The problem is those who would probably be better placed in terms of resources have mostly left the country leaving those who have no motivation/resources/encouragement behind due to the economic conditions.

Sad, but true, at least in my opinion.

i'm in boy, we have the same passion. pheeewww.

forget cars,

have we made bicycles? all the Zhiang, Zhiang motorcycles that are everywhere, are they not just assemblies of Taiwanese Parts. Do you mean Nigerians are not intelligent enough to do something local, which would be more cheaper?

Its like this: as of now, what Nigeria knows how to do is to pour amala pouder inside diabetes-Capsules and sell them as diabetes drugs, and we end up killing ourselves. Thank God for NAFDAC

thats why there is no Nigerian made car. If Nigeria makes its own car, it will just catch fire.

As an addendum to my previous post:

From living in Nigeria for 13 years and visiting there every other year since 2000, what I have concluded is that *generally speaking*, the pple depend too much on the government. The few who would rather not don't have the resources to move forward with such a massive project. As a result, they wait for the government to spearhead the effort, which in the end is a means for someone to get rich via awoof choppings.

Number finally , again *generally speaking*, the average nigerian wants it all to himself. So rather than join resources to have a deep pocket from which to tap the money for investment, one person ends up wanting to own it all. Either that, or when he does join, upon his death, the other partners plot a way to get his descendants out of it.

Am I right here or am I just smoking crack out of the wrong pipe? LOL

Regarding AMAMCO, they are still fabricating busses powered by mercedes diesel engines albiet in small numbers. Peugeot Association of Nigeria (PAN) is currently the only assembler of paasenger cars. Their business model still bogles my mind, because a brand new 504 is 2 million naira. Now who in their right mind would spend that much money for such an archaic design( aprt from the government officials), when a more modern imported kia or hyundai costs a lot less.

PAN and ANAMCO are partly government owned. there in lies the issue. government owned car companies are always slugish because every worker goes there to make money for himself like you said my2cents. Not only nigeria, but other countries suffer the same reality, Proton of malaysia is the best example. Only in China do government owned carmakers perform well because of the unique internal competitive environment china creates.

We DON'T NEED any government backing to make this happen. read the short history of the sri-lankan car and notice it took just two years to go from prototype to sales, although they had a little government support, that is pretty quick. Izuogu's 1st prototype was completed in 1997 and no sales yet 9 years later.
I would sincerely like to say that Izuogu's car is not necesarily what we have to follow, its just a refrence point. The design has aged so much that even if it enters production people today would not accept it as much as they would 9 years ago.

Lets take a page from the entrepreneurs in the Nigerian movie sector, those folks never waited for the government. they just did what they had to do.

I've moved my forum from naijar..com to naijaCar.proboards99.com

One thing is competition to market. there is no greater motivator than competition. At this point only Izuogu's Z600 has reached some sort of national awareness, although I remeber seeing a car built by a professor at UNILAG called the "Tinubu" at the 2002 Lagos trade fare, just before I came to the US for higher education. Since then I haven't seen nor heared nothing about it.

If you have two or more people competing to sell the "first Nigerian car", and it's fueled by much media fanfare, it would involve the public more and speed up the forces to make such happen.

Sometimes too an organised competition would provide intense motivation.  Organisations like Lever Brothers Nigeria PLC, MTN Nigeria, etc could sponsor a competition for "1st to build a Nigerian car AND actually sell it" The companies could provide a lump sum as reward to pay for development expenses. Such motivation would help, because what I see in Dr. Izuogu's Z600 case is a car that is known by only a small circle of people and near 0 motivation and 100% obstruction. I think that should be reversed.

I have already started sending emails to most big companies in Nigeria on this sugestion. Hopefully something comes out of it.

The car maker my 2 cents talked about is Eddy Bongos. He was doing assembly on a small scale. His vehicles were mainly pickups and buses and I still see some of them today.
To date it has been the most commercially viable attempt at vehicle manufacturing in Nigeria. The vehicles looked like Isuzu,Toyota, Nissan and Mazda all together. Most key components were imported while the body parts were done in house. I spoke with some of his old workers not too long ago.
I am very much interested in the auto industry. we can't really make much head way without it.
Substantial efforts have been made by a government organ called CADD( ABU, Proda, Addis Engineering, Kwaratech Etc). CADD stands for Centre for Automotive Design and development. CADD was scraped by OBJ govt due to bad advice from his advisers.

I like Naijadey's enthusiasm and I will like to join forces with him

some of the equipment of the fellow that is manufacturing the car was stolen by armed men pity

Now I'm thinking of following the blueprint of TATA motors $2,200 "Indian peoples car"  which would be assembled on site at the dealerships. Complete kits would be manufactured at one factory, then components shipped to dealerships where they would be assembled on demand. At first I doubted such a scheme would work, but after thorough review of the concept, it began to make sense. It would avoid the huge overhead costs for factory equipment and transportation cost, as it is easier transporting stacked car parts than a fully assembled car. This method is very similar to what the Swedish retail giant IKEA does.

heres a link to the progress of the TATA project  http://www.dancewithshadows.com/one_lakh_car.asp

hers a draft of the early technical specs and layout the press release is below that

Tata Motors on Friday July 7 said it would launch the much-touted Rs one lakh car in early 2008, as the company had completed its styling and designing and tested the prototypes within the plant.

Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata told shareholders that the launch of the car would create a new paradigm in low-cost personal transport, carve out a new market segment and reach a broader base of the pyramid.

"The styling and designing of the car have been completed and prototypes are being tested in the plant. It will be a rear engine, 4-5 seat, four-door car with about a 30 horsepower engine," Tata said in the company's annual report for 2005-06.

The car will be launched in early 2008 and we believe it will be extremely attractive to the Indian consumer, particularly younger families, at a price level of about Rs one lakh, Tata said.

First steps have been taken to locate the manufacturing plant near Kolkata, he added.

Stating that rising fuel costs added strain on the automobile industry in both commercial vehicle and passenger car segments, the Tata Chief said it calls for more fuel- efficient engines and will spur the development of alternate fuels and energy sources for vehicles of the future.

"Tata Motors, like other automobile companies, is exploring various new technologies to meet the new challenges arising from spiraling energy costs," he said.

[size=14pt]This is what Nigeria Should be doing[/size]

naijadey:

So lets reignite the topic of a Nigerian car, remember the 1997 Z600 by Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu?

The prototype for Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu car was stolen few months back. Read it in Daily Sun. cant seem to find the link to that story on their site.

I am fully aware of that, that does not mean the guy is dead. We can still join our efforts to make his dream a reality.

Well, i believe anything is possible if and only if we've got the time, patience and motivation to do it

So the project aint dead

I just updated the naijacar blog with an early illustration of a possible nigerian car.


The design was made simplistic intentionally for ease of manufacture. An outline of the technicals would be made available so students and mechanical tinkerers can study the design. With all heads together this will be a reality.

that a true talk 9ja shud try to make their own car instead of doing it for other country , that my opinion

I understand the simplistic design but I have to point out that you can't put safety after cost. Its inhuman!

The center of gravity shouldn't be so high for a car with a [prospective] maximum speed of 120km/hr.
Aerodynamics play a role in fuel consumption too.

I advice you lower the height and keep the design simple. The parts can be shipped to retailers as suggested.

It would be nice to have a state-of-the-art computer monitored functions too.

Nice idea.Have we produced any?

Naijadey, keep dreaming bad dreams of how to build a car called Naijasko or Nabisco. You don't even know how to make chin-chin and doughnut and even dry plaintain (kpekere) and you are dreaming of building Naijasko.

If you want to be a millionaire, start with moulding clay pots for freezing water like one Aboki did and named it the International Hausa Fridge from Gombe (IHFG).

Even sef, even if you wan build Naijasco, you think that FG will assist you, problem with Nigeria.

lmao


Pls support d guy people

Yes thats true, we can make it, we can team up. I have seen guys with toy helicopter, made by them, but there is nobody to help them develop this technology. Even they did it with remote controller, they control it with remote.
Gear up NaiJa.

Well

Why is it that here in Nigeria, whenever someone reasons that he/she intend to start something large number of people rise up against such person?

If you visit Supercars.net, autoblog and lots of other sight you see people gearingup and even contributing to a project. No, not in Nigeria.

Back in 2005, I had a project in mind, after presenting it to people their replies were very aweful comments. That I heard to just keep my thing to myself and carried out what I intend to do.

This year, I raised an opinion on how to improve election processes in Nigeria although no other coutry has done such. But would you believe that in the poll about 90% of people were against it.

Back in the 80's a man presented another project to the government about the situation of Lagos. He stated that, in years to come Lagos might turn out to be a place like venice if the necessary measures were taken. But Nah, they waved him aside.

Why is it that Nigerians don't believe in their fellow brothers/sisters?

Lets think about it. Every project starts by sharing positive Ideas.

To all that show some interest in this idea, thanks. To those who refuse to understand, so be it.
I have not kept up with my blog lately because motivation was lost for a while and other things took up my time. naijacar was created to raise interest and awareness for the nigerian public on building a car.

There is no reason why Nigeria should not be building her own cars today. Like has been stated in my first post, other countries have had successes with their own locally developed cars. Nigeria should not be left behind. I will begin updating the blog with news and developments in the Nigerian industry and the progress of naijacar.

Naijadey

Don't loose hope. It is going to happen someday. I definitely know that.

Keep it up.

Thanks nazzyon I haven't lost hope at all. This idea is one of my biggest passion and once that s there hope cannot be taken away.

By the way I have a hard time finding what is going on in the parts manufacturing sector of Nnewi and Aba. It would be nice to get a lead that knows what goes on in these areas as well as the steel and aluminum industry. sharing that informing is greatly appreciated and highly needed.

How far u don go?

In terms of conceptualization. I've come a long way. details would be posted on my blog next week, but thats just conceptualization. The real test is to execute this in the nigerian environment, something that is a little out of my way now that I am not in Nigeria. Thats why I wanted to raise interest so people could just see the possibilities that are usually hard to visualize.

Okay


Success and keep us informed

this will be great if it eventually comes to pass. the masses in Nigeria will have hope of owning their own brand new cars. I recently visited a country in Asia ( a fellow economic south country!!!!!), at a point it seemed like cars were being rolled out of the factory. I dream of the day that we'll have less "tokunbo" on our roads. Keep us posted with progress reports. I wish you and all other Nigerian inventors favour (in the site of govt. and big-time investors) and progress

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