NAIROBI, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Over latest months, units of sturdy, brightly-branded battery swapping stations have cropped up round Kenya’s capital Nairobi, permitting electrical motorcyclists to change their low battery for a fully-charged one.
It’s a signal of an electrical motorcyle revolution beginning to unfold in Kenya the place combustion-engine motorbikes are a less expensive and faster technique to get round than vehicles however environmental consultants say are 10 instances extra polluting.
East Africa’s largest economic system is betting on electric-powered bikes, its renewables-heavy energy provide and place as a expertise and start-up hub to steer the area’s shift to zero-emission electrical mobility.
The battery swapping system not solely saves time – important for Kenya’s a couple of million motorcyclists, most of whom use the bikes commercially – but additionally saves patrons cash as many sellers observe a mannequin during which they maintain possession of the battery, the bike’s costliest half.
“It does not make quite a lot of financial and enterprise sense for them to accumulate a battery…which might virtually double the price of the bike,” mentioned Steve Juma, the co-founder of electrical bike firm Ecobodaa.
Ecobodaa has 50 take a look at electrical motorcyles on the highway now and plans to have 1,000 by the tip of 2023 which it sells for about $1,500 every – roughly the identical value as combustion-engine bikes due to the exclusion of the battery from the fee.
After the preliminary buy, the electrical motorcyle – designed to be sturdy sufficient to traverse rocky roads – is cheaper to run than petrol-guzzling ones.
[1/5] Employees at ARC Experience assemble an electrical motorbike on the firm’s warehouse in Industrial Space, Nairobi, Kenya November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi
“With the conventional bike, I’ll use gas price roughly 700-800 Kenyan shillings ($5.70-$6.51) every day, however with this bike, once I swap a battery I get one battery at 300 shillings,” mentioned Kevin Macharia, 28, who transports items and passengers round Nairobi.
EXPANSION PLANS
Ecobodaa is only one of a number of Nairobi-based electrical motorbike startups working to show themselves in Kenya earlier than finally increasing in East Africa.
Kenya’s constant energy provide which is about 95% renewable led by hydroelectricity and has a widespread community, was a significant help for progress of the sector, mentioned Jo Hurst-Croft, founding father of ARC Experience, one other Nairobi-based electrical motorbike startup.
The nation’s energy utility estimates it generates sufficient to cost two million electrical bikes a day: electrical energy entry within the nation is over 75%, in line with the World Financial institution, and even larger in Nairobi.
Uganda and Tanzania even have strong and renewables-heavy grids that might help electrical mobility, mentioned Hurst-Croft.
“We’re placing over 200 swapping stations in Nairobi and increasing to Dar es Salaam and Kampala,” mentioned Hurst-Croft.
($1 = 122.9000 Kenyan shillings)
Reporting by Ayenat Mersie; Enhancing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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