By CASSEY KAYULA
THE First electric powered cars will be launched on the Zambian market in the next two months in time for Christmas shopping.

Amilak Investments, a local based company is expected to launch the electric powered vehicles which consume less fuel in the country.
The launch is scheduled to take place on December 15, 2018 with the cars expected to arrive by the end of next month.Company chief executive officer Charles Kalima said the company had partnered with a Germany firm to design electric powered vehicles at the cost of US$5 million.
Mr Kalima said in an interview in Lusaka that the company had four models with the cheapest car expected to cost US$15,000.
“These are utility vehicles that are like open vans… some have closed boxes that can be adjusted depending on the usage.
“One of the biggest competitive advantage for this is that they are big and do not need special charging ports,” he said.
Mr Kalima explained that most start-up businesses could use this type of vehicles because of the ever increasing cost of fuel in the country.
The maintenance  cost has been reduced   because  the vehicle  had  no engine and no
moving parts  hence  they  would  not  have huge engine blocks .He said the company had an agreement with Germany to assemble the electric vehicles locally.
“Our talk with Barclays Bank is critical and we are almost concluding, when people want to procure any of these vehicles they have to buy through the bank.
“Our target market is the city type of deliveries like DHL, Post Office and Zampost,” he said.