MINSK, 10 July (BelTA) – The development of electric transport is the future. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement while talking to employees of ZAO Atlant and university students participating in the Atlant 2020 project on 10 July, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “I am an avid fan of electric vehicles. They are the future. It is good that this trend has emerged in the world. I felt it a long time ago. Samples [of Belarusian electric vehicles] are available. I recently visited a testing facility and saw them. Those are not only cars but small trucks. We now know how to make them. We need to make them beautiful and affordable now.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko said he uses various kinds of electric transportation and actively encourages the development of electric transport in Belarus. It is also important considering the forthcoming launch of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. “We are going to use less natural gas. It will be replaced with electricity. This is why there will be no surplus, but an additional volume of electricity. And we should consume it primarily on our own market,” the Belarusian leader noted. “Future belongs to it. Nuclear energy is first of all pure. Naturally, it needs to be safe. [The nuclear power plant under construction in Belarus] is one of the best nuclear power plants in the world, this is why we've chosen it.”
“I am convinced that in this five-year plan [the next five-year plan] we will make a good electric vehicle of our own. Besides, we are going to make our own electric vehicles at Geely Company premises together with China. It is already a reality,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.
The head of state noted that imported batteries are the main problem of Belarusian electric vehicles for now. “But our specialists have even come up with new principles for making these batteries (not conventional lithium-ion batteries, but graphene ones), which the world has yet to discover.”
