Qatar plant to produce 700hp, 1,000km range electric car

The first electric car from the proposed new venture from Qatar Quality Trading Company will roll out of the assembly line in 2022, it was announced on Wednesday.

Named `Katara', the 700hp green car would have a range of 1000-km on a 10-minute single charge.

The $9bn-project is backed by the production technology of ARM of Japan and is expected to come up near the New Industrial Area, company officials said. The plant will be spread over 6.5 sqkm.

Addressing a press conference, the promoters said once all approvals and clearances are received, the work of the state-of- the-art complex, containing six factories, with 12 production lines will start production as early as 2022.

In his presentation ARM managing director Takayuki Hirayama said the company would produce 500,000 cars in the first three years after commencing the production in 2022. "Our expectation is that approximately one million units would be launched by the end of 2035."

Speaking to Gulf Times, Qatar Quality Trading Company's managing director Musa Ramadan said the first 10 `Katara' cars would be produced in Japan. He said the company is expected to produce one car every 10 minutes from each of the six plants. The full production capacity of the plant will be reached after seven years, with 12 production lines running 24 hours a day.

The company has an ambitious plan to sell the cars worldwide and an amount of $0.4bn has been set apart for global advertising and $0.1bn for marketing and sales research .

The production lines to be made in Japan is expected to cost about $3bn. ARM is one of the leading Japanese companies in the field of technology, systems design and programming for production lines.

Besides Hirayama and Ramadan, CEO of Qatar Quality Trading Company Ali bin Nasser al-Misnad and director of the Environmental and Municipal Studies Center at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment Dr. Mohamed Saif al-Kuwari spoke at the meeting.

Qatar's Minister for Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed Saleh al-Sada, Japanese ambassador Seiichi Otsuka, Syrian Ambassador Nizar Hassan al-Haraki, Qatar Chamber vice president Mohamed bin Twar al-Kuwari and Saif al-Hajri were among others who attended.

Dr al-Kuwari said the establishment of the first plant for the production of electric cars in Qatar would help preserve the environment and achieve the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2018-2022, which strongly recommended the preservation of the environment and development of alternative energy.

He pointed out that the electric vehicle will significantly reduce carbon emissions.