Officials Making Fun Of Lukashenka?
- 27.04.2023, 10:49
For six years the dictator has been promised that "a Belarusian electromobile is about to be created".
The idea that Belarus could create from scratch an electric car that would compete with the world carmakers in the market came to Aliaksandr Lukashenka's mind. Since then, officials regularly report on how close they came to achieving the task.
UDF presents new episodes of this tragicomedy.
The starting point can be considered the events of six years ago. The year 2017. Back then Lukashenka took a ride in a Tesla and tasked his subordinates with creating its Belarusian counterpart. The politician was enthusiastic about the future:
"If we can also create a battery - an electricity storage device - the best in the world, why aren't we creating one? What is needed for that? People, money, competence? This has to be implemented immediately".
The same year, officials were shown an "experimental prototype" of the first Belarusian electric car based on Geely.
Moreover, the head of the National Academy of Sciences Uladzimir Husakou said that "options are already being studied where to set up mass production".
In 2018, Husakou said that a finalized electric car made in Belarus could see the light of day by the end of the year. In 2019, he voiced an even bolder promise: Belarusian electric cars may be on sale by the end of the year.
None of this has happened, of course, but in 2020 Lukashenka has set a new deadline - and with plenty of time to spare.
"I am sure that in this five-year period we will have our own good electric car. Plus we will produce our own electric car at Geely with the Chinese. This is already a reality," said the country's leader.
Promises of the Officials of the Latest Time: They Show That Lukashenka's Task is Failed
The last time a bold promise to produce electric cars in Belarus was made in summer 2021. Then First Deputy Minister of Industry Siarhei Hunko said:
"There are agreements with Belgee to produce the first thousand electric cars. We expect it by the end of the year. We have already got the model, now its testing is being held. Orders are being taken at the company's website".
Naturally, nothing happened within the set deadline. Officials kept silent for almost a year until in the summer of 2022 - First Vice-Premier Mikalai Snapkou confirmed the task set by Lukashenka: Belarus plans to master the assembling of domestic electric cars to the maximum by 2025.
At that point, with less than three years left to meet the target, officials started the production of a Belarusian electric car "from scratch". Last autumn, BelGee CEO Hennadz Sviderski said that his company was thinking about creating an electric car for the Union State.
"Together with the United Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus we conduct a series of works and consultations. In addition, we are negotiating with Chinese companies and AvtoVAZ companies. The idea is to find a promising platform for the electric car and use the know-how on components available at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. We will also use modern technological processes for production of the car, which are available at the BelGee plant. This issue is now under development. As soon as all this is agreed upon, we will inform you in more detail about the work plan for creating a union car," said Sviderski.
Following him the new idea was announced by Husakou, who suggested considering the option of creating "Belarusian electric car" within the framework of the so-called union state.
A discouraging conclusion could be drawn from these statements: not only had the promises made over the years not been fulfilled, but it turned out that neither the Academy of Sciences nor BelGee had made any progress in this direction.
At the beginning of 2023, Prime Minister Raman Halouchanka suspected something might be amiss. Visiting Belkammunmash, he noted: the key issue under discussion today is the realistic timeframe for creating your own electric car.
And more recently, BelGee CEO Sviderski made a statement suggesting that Lukashenka's goal of creating a domestic electric car by 2025 had been failed. He blamed it on the Academy of Sciences.
"If we talk about when a completely domestic car will appear, I think a completely domestic car will appear not earlier than in three years (that is, in 2026! - note). However, once we have given the Academy of Sciences a platform, we are saying today: the electric propulsion engine has been mastered, the control system has been mastered. As far as I know, the Academy of Sciences is developing a battery that is expected to be lower in cost than the ones being made in the world today. Therefore, this consistent movement, unfortunately, does not allow us to move fast," Sviderski said.
Thus, Belarusian officials are getting ever closer to a landmark anniversary: 2027 will mark the tenth anniversary of their talk that a Belarusian electric car is about to be created.