Electric cars, motorbikes uptake rises by 729 units in Kenya
Source：Business Daily
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Nairobi
Update Time：2024/02/03
The number of electric vehicles and motorcycles in Kenya increased by 729 units between February and June in 2023 as the shift to clean mobility gathers pace.
Data from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) shows that there were 2,079 electric units (including two-wheelers) as at June, up from 1,350 units in February.
The increase highlights the rising uptake of EVs, which are seen as offering lower running costs besides clean transport that is key to cutting carbon emissions and climate change.
“As of June 2023, there were 2,079 electric vehicles in the country, a figure that is aimed to reach five percent of the total registered vehicles by 2025,” the Epra says.
“The push to decarbonise the transport sector has spurred increased interest in electric mobility in Kenya.”
Motorcycles account for 1,500 units or 72.1 percent of the electric units followed by 181 station wagons or 8.7 percent and 176 tuk tuks (8.4 percent). The data further shows that there were 20 electric buses on Kenyan roads in the period.
A number of firms assembling motorcycles and two-wheelers, electric mobility startup BasiGo and the Swedish-owned Roam are spearheading the clean mobility shift in public transport.
Operators on ride-booking apps such as Uber and Bolt have increasingly turned to electric vehicles (EVs), whose consumption costs are lower compared to those that use fossil fuels amid costly super petrol and diesel.
Simulations by Epra show that an electric car needs 36kWh for 240 kilometres at a cost of Sh1,418.51 compared to the Sh3,069.36 that a super petrol unit needs for the 14.55 litres of fuel for the same journey.
An EV bus uses an average of 115 kilowatt hours (kWh) for a 260-kilometre trip at a cost of Sh4,440, compared to Sh13,064 for 65 litres that a diesel-powered bus uses for the same trip.
Public charging stations for EVs will be located every 25 kilometres on highways, according to guidelines published by the Epra.
The growing popularity of EVs offers Kenya Power a quick win in electricity sales given that demand for clean mobility is expected to lift Kenya’s annual consumption by 5.155 gigawatt hours (GWh).
Electricity generation rose to 13, 289.63 GWh in the year ended June, a 5.03 percent rise from 12, 652.7 GWh the previous year.
Source: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate/companies/electric-cars-motorbikes-uptake-rises-to-729-units--4470236