Site Map Friday, April 17, 1998 Published at 13:44 GMT 14:44 UK
World: Africa
The all-African dream machine
The Z-600 is already a hit with the people of Nigeria
It's African, it's new and it's different. The
latest - and the first - in the Z series, the
Z-600, is the first ever all-African car,
reports the BBC's correspondent in Lagos,
Hilary Andersson.
Watch this story
in Real Video
It was designed and made in Nigeria for
the family market and has a top speed of
140km (86m) an hour.
Ninety per cent of its parts are locally
produced - it has a doorbell for a horn.
And if it ever goes into mass production it
will cost just $2,000 (£1,195), making it
the most affordable car in Africa - and
probably the world.
A doorbell acts as a horn The Z-600's inventor, Dr Ezekiel Izuogu,
says that many Nigerians simply cannot
afford a car. He believes his home-grown
machine will be an instant hit.
"The common man is very, very keen. He's
very interested. Many of them have
dreamt of having their own cars over the
years," he says.
The car is already an icon in Nigeria. The
prototype received a rapturous reception
on the streets of the capital, Lagos.
But back at the workshop, Dr Izuogu is
working on another idea designed to
appeal to the "common man". He is
adapting the engine to allow the Z-600 to
double up as a lawnmower - or even an
electricity generator.
http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/africa/77798.stm
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izuogu_Z-600

The First African Made Car by a Biafran of Igbo
extraction..
I AM THANKFUL TO CHUKWU OKIKE ABIAMA for
making me A Biafran.
Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu : How the Izuogu Z-600 dream
was destroyed
In 1997, a brilliant Igbo Electrical Engineer and
Lecturer at the Federal polytechnic Nekede, Dr.
Ezekiel Izogu designed and developed the Izuogu
Z-600, the first African indigenous manufactured
car.
The car was described by the BBC as ‘ the African
dream machine’ as 90% of its parts were sourced
locally . At a projected sales cost of 2000 dollars,
it would have taken the world by storm and
become the cheapest and most affordable car on
earth. With mass production planned under Izogu
Motors plant in Naze owerri, the prospects of an
industrial revolution in Igbo land and Nigeria, was
in the making.
The car was equipped with a self made 1.8L four
cylinder engine that got 18mpg and allowedthe car
to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h. Front Wheel
Drive (FWD) was chosen over Rear Wheel Drive
(RWD) because a transmission tunnel, which RWD
would require, would be more expensive to
fabricate.
So 90% of the car’s components were made
locally. General Sani Abacha set up a 12 man
panel of inquiry made up of professionals to
ascertain the road worthiness and authenticity of
the car and after several days of probing, the
committee gave Dr. Izuogu’s car a clean bill of
health recommending that some of the bumps on
the body of the car be smoothened. It is worthy to
note that this was five years before India built their
first car known as the Indi.
At a well organized unveiling ceremony which had
General Abacha represented by Oladipo Diya, over
20 foreign ambassadors and thousands of people
in attendance, the federal government promised a
grant of 235 million naira to Dr.Izuogu.
An excited Dr Izuogu is still waiting for that grant
till today. No dime was released to him. In 2006,
the government of South Africa invited Dr. Izuogu
to do a presentation about the car in the presence
of several world class engineers . Being impressed
with his presentation, they invited him to come and
set up a plant in South Africa and begin the
production of the car.
Dr Izuogu reluctantly agreed, though he wasn’t
happy that the benefits of employment generation
will be lost on the locals of Naze and the Nigerian
human resources environment . On Saturday the
11th of March 2006, at about 2.00 a.m, a total of
about 12 heavily armed men broke into Dr. Izogu’s
factory in Naze and carted away various machines
and tools including the design history notebook of
Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the
design history for mass production of Z-600 car,
and the moulds for various parts of the car.
According to Dr. Izogu:
“It seems that the target of this robbery is to stop
the efforts we are making to mass-produce the
first ever locally made car in Africa. Other items
stolen included locally produced timing wheel,
locally produced camshaft, locally produced
crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20
pieces each.
Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced
Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces of locally produced
pistons, four pieces of engine block mounds, four
pieces of top engine block moulds, ten pieces of
engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car
and front mudguard moulds.”The inventor regretted
that not only did they lose over one N1 billion in
monetary terms, but also time (about 10 years)
and the energy it took to design and produce the
moulds. “To worsen the matter, our design
notebook was also stolen,” he stated.
He regarded the incident as a national economic
disaster because the nation had lost a
technological and intellectual property. This Press
was quiet about this story. The set back and
governments attitude frustrated Izuogu and his
dream died.
.................

Nigerian invents power-generating machine, makes
Africa’s first local car
on september 20, 2012 at 1:00 am in
education, technology
Facebook Share Twitter Share
By Ebele Orakpo
Perhaps, Nigeria would have joined the
likes of Germany, Japan, India and
Malaysia as an automobile manufacturer
as far back as 1997 when Dr. Ezekiel
Izuogu, an electrical/electronics engineer,
a doctor of science and lecturer of
communications and electronics
engineering at the Federal Polytechnic,
Owerri, made a prototype of his first ever
all-African car which he named Z-600.
The car which BBC’s Hilary Andersson
described as the all-African dream
machine, was made for the family market
with a top speed of 140km (86m) per
hour.
Ninety per cent of its parts were sourced
locally. For instance, the horn was a
doorbell and it would have been the
cheapest car on the planet as it would
have cost just $2,000 to own one.
According to Izuogu who had
demonstrated a great flair for inventive
and creative knowledge from early
childhood, he was working on adapting
the engine to allow the Z-600 to double
up as a lawnmower or an electricity
generator.
With the usual Nigerian lackadaisical
attitude when it comes to things that will
help project the country’s image to the
world positively, the authorities were not
ready to invest money in the project and
so in 2005, the South African Government
invited him to build the car there. And
since he who pays the piper dictates the
tune, South Africa would have been the
proud manufacturers of the Z-600 were it
not for the incidence of March 11, 2006.
Made by Izuogo
Unfortunately, this dream was not to see
the light of day. According to Dr. Izuogu,
some armed men numbering about 12
broke into the Izuogu Motors factory on
Saturday, March 11, between 1.00 and
2.00 a.m. and carted away various
machines and tools including the design
history notebook of Z-600, the design file
Z-MASS, containing the design history for
mass production of Z-600 car, and the
moulds for various parts of the car.
Said Izuogu; “It seems that the target of
this robbery is to stop the efforts we are
making to mass-produce the first ever
locally made car in Africa. Other items
stolen included locally produced timing
wheel, locally produced camshaft, locally
produced crankshaft, locally produced
engine tappets, all 20 pieces each.
Made by Izuogu
Also stolen were ten pieces of locally
produced Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces
of locally produced pistons, four pieces of
engine block mounds, four pieces of top
engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine
fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car
and front mudguard moulds.”
The inventor regretted that not only did
they lose over one N1 billion in monetary
terms, but also time (about 10 years) and
the energy it took to design and produce
the moulds. “To worsen the matter, our
design notebook was also stolen,” he
stated.
He regarded the incident as a national
economic disaster because the nation had
lost a technological and intellectual
property.

Izuogu machine:
Before the Z-600 car, Dr. Izuogu had been
working on ways to provide the nation and
the world with clean, cheap and
environment-friendly energy source. So,
after 33 years of intense research, he
came up with a new branch of physics
known as Emagnetodynamics, the branch
of physics that studies the conversion of
the energy of static magnetic fields into
work. Before now, “the conventional
electric motor was built on the principle/
law of Michael Faraday which states that
Force is exerted on a current-carrying
conductor in a magnetic field.”
The two laws of Emagnetodynamics state
as follows: Force is exerted on a
composite magnetic pole in the vicinity of
an array of like poles; and this force is in
the direction of the composite polarity
similar to the array.
Based on these two laws, he invented the
Izuogu machine, also called the self-
sustaining Emagnetodynamics machine, a
kind of electric motor that draws atomic
energy from the nuclei of permanent
magnets and therefore requires no input
power to operate.
Dr. Izuogu
According to Izuogu, there are two
versions of the Emagnetodynamics
machine – the non-self-sustaining and
the self-sustaining machine which can
run for upwards of 30 to 40 years. He
added that soft iron machine or the hard
iron machine could be built from each of
them.
He noted that the machines named
M-1000 and M-6000, respectively, could
drive 100 KVA and 5 Mega watt electric
power generators with no noise, no
pollution, and zero energy input.
“The M-60 prototype machine has been
built and demonstrated, while the M-1000
and M-6000 have been designed waiting
to be built,” he said.
Scientists have experimented with nuclear
reactors in their bid to seek energy
source that is clean, cheap and
environment-friendly. However, this could
not work as the dangers inherent in that
are enormous.
For instance, reports say that more than
20,000 people developed thyroid cancer
and had to have their thyroids removed as
a result of April 26, 1986 Chernobyl
disaster. Till date, there is about 1,660
square-mile Exclusion Zone around the
site of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 years
after the accident.
Unlike nuclear reactors, the Izuogu
machine draws atomic energy without the
dangers and complications of nuclear
reactors. Izuogu said that besides
generating electricity, the machine can
also power big luxury buses and trams
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/nigerian-invents-power-generating-machine-makes-africas-first-local-car/

Rumors had it that it was OBJ that ordered the robbery.. and it was lent credence by the marginalizing actions OBJ was taking against Igbo industrialists like innoson and ibeto back then..

Achebe once said that the greatest loss in Biafra, is the loss of what could had been.

Imagine what we could have achieved in Biafra, we have thousands of Izuogu in Aba, with no govt support, their talents are wasting.

We must break free of this retrogressive union, we own it God and our unborn generation. We have the talent to become another Taiwan or Japan, we just need a progressive union to achieve that.

If we had Biafra, Izuogu model would have been updated and built on by now, we would have had a more efficient and improved version of his original proto type.

I read about this some time ago. This was a defeat for humanity.

Sentiment apart I think Igbos are the most creative race in Africa.

LoveMachine:
I read about this some time ago. This was a defeat for humanity.

Humanity has failed, and Hausa/fulani/yoruba logic and politics represent here in Africa, a clear manifestation of that ultimate failure.

Moheat:
Sentiment apart I think Igbos are the most creative race in Africa.

I am yoruba, i agree totally with you.

knowledgeable:


Humanity has failed, and Hausa/fulani/yoruba logic and politics represent here in Africa, a clear manifestation of that ultimate failure.

Why just those people and no one else? I'm neither in agreement not disagree with your premise. I'd like to gain further insight to your viewpoint. I'm Igbo if that matters.