Electric Vehicles and Hybrid Electric Vehicles now available in PNG

Niugini Automobiles and Ela Motors are now the only distributors of Electric Vehicles [EVs] and Hybrid Electric Vehicles [HEVs] in the country.

The EVs are distributed by Niugini Automobiles and HEVs by Ela Motors. The difference is EVs are 100 percent electric cars with no engine whilst HEVs have both an internal combustion engine [ICE] and an electrical motor that work together.

These EVs are chargeable for eight hours and it can be used up to almost three days depending on the runs.

On Friday [yesterday] Niugini Automobiles displayed four of its 100 percent Maxus and MG Brand EVs.

Company’s Sales Director Alicia Obara said since its introduction in 2024, there were a good number of vehicles sold out to the few individuals.  

“So far, we've sold about 150 EVs already to a lot of commercial businesses. So they've adopted and taken them in very well. One of our main customers are SMEs and commercial companies, because of the logistics in them. So the popular sales that we had was our Maxus e-delivery vans.” Obara said.

The capacity of the battery is 51 kilowatts. In other words, it would probably cost at least K48 to charge.

“Mathematically, that's how much it would cost to charge a car. How long will it last? Well, it has a driving range of 350 kilometers. So in other words, it can last you roughly between two to three days, really depending on your runs, or how you do your operations, when driving the car,” Obara said.  

Ms. Obara said the EV or electric vehicles do not have a gearbox nor doesn't have oils to change on them.

She said the only maintenance that the owner probably does is coolant, tyres changes, windscreen, windscreen wipers.

“Yeah, that's about the only kind of maintenance. You're probably wondering, what about brakes, right? Because every car uses brakes. And majority of the time, brakes are the main component that do cause a lot of people to get their cars maintained.

“So when it comes to brakes, brakes aren’t really much of an issue with any of these EV cars, because we have retracting brakes. Essentially, when you use the accelerator, you don't really have to press on the brake, because when you accelerate in an EV car, and you let go of the acceleration, it automatically brakes. It has that system implemented.”

For Ela Motors the Hybrid Electric Vehicles or HEVs are yet to be sold. They are only used for administration runs.

These vehicles were called hybrids because they are not 100 percent electric.

The HEV has both an internal combustion engine [ICE] and an electrical motor that work together to propel the vehicle which helps increase the efficiency of the engine.

These vehicles use fuel as primary power source and do not require an external source to recharge their batteries. The combination of ICE and electrical motor allows the vehicle to achieve optimum power under most driving conditions.

Meanwhile, in terms of damages for both the EVs and HEVs, it will be fixed by highly trained mechanics. EVs will be fixed by mechanics of Niugini Automobiles and HEVs by mechanics of Ela Motors.