Lebanon’s first electric car makes its debut despite economic crisis and power cuts
- The unveiling comes as Lebanon struggles amid its worst economic crisis in decades and imported car sales are at a record low
- Potential Lebanese buyers will be offered the opportunity to pay for half the US$30,00 electric car in dollars with the rest paid in Lebanese pounds, according to the car’s maker
A Lebanon-made electric car made its debut on Saturday, the first time the Mediterranean country has manufactured an automobile, despite struggling amid a dire economic crisis with frequent power cuts.
The red sports car – named “Quds Rise”, using the Arabic name of Jerusalem – is the project of Lebanese-born Palestinian businessman Jihad Mohammad.
It’s the “first automobile to be made locally,” Mohammad told reporters, at the unveiling in a car park south of Beirut.
It was built in Lebanon “from start to finish”, he said of the prototype, emblazoned at the front with a golden logo of the Dome of the Rock, the shrine in Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site.
The car is to cost US$30,000.
Production of up to 10,000 vehicles is hoped to start later this year in Lebanon, with cars to hit the market in a year’s time, said Mohammad, the director of Lebanon-based firm EV Electra.