The Africa Clean Mobility Week was held last week at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The annual event was organized by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and was graced by environmental experts from across the globe including motor industry manufacturers.
Mr. Jim Dando, Director of Operations at Nissan South Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa was at hand as key note speaker and covered key aspects of the influx of the grey imports in Africa and in essence defined the role of Nissan and other manufacturers in sensitizing African governments on the need to scale down on grey imports and embrace local manufacturing, clean mobility and sustainability of the motoring industry on the continent.
The session culminated in a round table session where the invited journalists were able to discuss the following topics:
- Gradual phasing out grey imports as they pose an environmental risk in terms of unregulated emissions? (environmental factors and emissions)
proliferation of counterfeit spare parts and what Nissan is doing to educate the - African motorist on importance of purchasing genuine parts from authorised dealers and the consequences of using fake parts in your car? (counterfeit spare parts)
- Introducing affordable sub brands like Datsun to counter grey imports in the region? (Affordable mobility)
- Severity levels awareness campaign to sensitize grey import owners; How grey imports differ from dealer sourced models and advantages of having a tropicalized vehicle that’s built for our conditions (toughened suspension parts, bigger radiator, better insulation etc.)
- Grey Imports constitute 90% of total volume of vehicles on our roads. The cheap price of grey imports leads to flooding of the market and subsequently pressure of infrastructure. Traffic Jams and pollution have become mainstay of African cities. What is Nissan doing to promote sustainable mass transport systems in sub-Sahara-Africa?