Electric buses and boda bodas (two and three-wheel taxi motorcycles) are propelling the public transport electric vehicle (EV) market in Africa, where the cost of a privately owned EV is still prohibitively high for most people.

In June 2022, research organisation Transport Africa said public transport systems are generally underdeveloped and many African countries have fewer than 5,000 vehicles on their roads per million people.

In comparison, the organisation points out the global average is 173 cars per million people. To overcome this challenge, countries are exploring electric public transportation and charging solutions.

In East Africa, specifically Kenya, is leading the way in rolling out the necessary public infrastructure to support electric vehicle charging.

According to Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority, for example, it is estimated that there are 1,350 EVs registered in the country as of February 2023 and there are plans to launch 300 charging stations.

Countries taking the electric mobility route

Earlier this year, the Kenyan government looked at legal and policy frameworks to further incentivise investment in the country’s e-mobility sector. Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen told the Transform Kenya forum that part of the plan is to look at infrastructure development.

Two e-mobility companies in Kenya also launched public charging stations for motorcycles and buses this year. Roam launched its multi-purpose electric motorcycle charging stations, while BasiGo launched a public e-bus charging station.

These are all in Nairobi. BasiGo, launched in March 2022, reported that its electric buses had driven more than 460,000 kilometres, transporting over 580,000 passengers. Towards the end of July 2023, the company announced expanding operations into Rwanda.

The first BasiGo electric buses will arrive in Rwanda in October 2023 for pilot testing with Kigali transport operators.

Apart from this development, the Rwandan government also plans to introduce 200 electric buses in Kigali. Overall, Kenya intends to increase electric mobility adoption and has set a target for 2025 by which 5% of all newly registered vehicles will be electric.

In Nigeria’s Lagos state, Oando Clean Energy and the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) launched the first phase of its sustainable transport initiative in June. The company installed charging stations at each bus depot to guarantee the buses get a full daily charge.

The importance of distance and battery charging

In Uganda, the government has partnered with a vehicle and smart battery design company, SPIRO, to introduce electric motorbikes and charging and swapping stations nationwide. SPIRO will deploy 140,000 electric motorbikes into the Ugandan market over the next five years. The company will also develop over 3,000 recharging and battery swapping stations.

Their primary target market is Uganda’s boda bodas, which comprise nearly half of what the company called ’travel flows‘ in Kampala and other Ugandan cities. In South Africa’s Cape Town, GreenCape’s analysis of the Golden Arrow Bus Service’s trialling of electric buses showed that it, “Can be successfully deployed for public transport services in a South African city.”

GreenCape’s analysis further states that the adoption of solar PV technology shows that bus fleet operators can play a leading role in the transition to electric vehicles and in lowering the carbon footprint of cities when using renewable energy for charging purposes.

The South African Green Transport Strategy has set a target of 5% electrification of the total annual fleet purchases by the government and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to reduce the country’s transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“One of the fleets that could be at the forefront of this electrification transition is the municipal bus fleet,” said GreenCape.

In terms of the trial, Golden Arrow implemented an 18-month pilot project with two battery electric buses. The bus bodies were manufactured and assembled locally in Cape Town by Busmark using imported electric bus chassis from BYD.

The two 37-seater Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) specification buses were tested along all operational bus routes in Cape Town from April 2021 to September 2022 to assess, among others, the ability of the vehicles to manage the steep local topography.

GreenCape reported around 7,000km of field testing without passengers took place. The maximum potential passenger weight was modelled using sandbags. Golden Arrow evaluated safety and range for an additional 50,000km with passengers.

During this test phase, the company took the electric buses on hilly routes to measure the performance of the electric drive train and battery system. The field tests showed that the electric BYD buses could operate on some of the steepest inclines in Cape Town, most notably Hospital Bend.

Elsewhere, Senegal anticipates launching around 120 electric buses to operate on Dakar’s Bus Rapid Transit system, while Côte d’Ivoire also plans to deploy electric buses on Abidjan’s BRT system.

Challenges persist across Africa

A 2022 McKinsey report states that while momentum is building, sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, faces some unique challenges in its electric mobility transition. These challenges include, in some cases, unreliable electricity supply, low vehicle affordability and the dominance of used vehicles.

The report stressed the importance of the boda bodas to African countries and why switching these to electric versions makes more sense from a financial and practical perspective, given the high upfront costs for four-wheel EVs and the strain on electricity grids.

The report adds that unlike all other vehicle segments assessed, two-wheelers (called boda bodas in much of East Africa and okadas in Nigeria) are predominantly purchased new in sub-Saharan Africa.

These acquisitions see more than nine in 10 two-wheelers purchased for commercial taxi or delivery services. The commercial use results in a higher average distance travelled per vehicle, which improves the total cost of ownership of the electric two-wheeler versus the ICE two-wheeler.

However, this also results in a high fleet turnover, with an urban owner in Kenya and Nigeria on average buying a new two-wheeler every two to three years. On a positive note, the report affirms that because electric two wheelers have a small battery, they can be charged via a mini-grid, making them suitable for use in locations with low access to reliable electricity-grid infrastructure.

In addition, these vehicles can benefit from a battery-swap model in which a depleted battery is replaced with a fully charged battery from a designated ‘swap station’ in just a few minutes.

Alexander Korner, Programme Management Officer at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Sustainable Mobility Unit in Nairobi, said Africa will experience faster uptake of electric mobility in the next few years.

Speaking to Chinese state media in June 2023, Korner said the continent has many opportunities to adopt electric vehicles and several countries have expressed interest in the sector. According to Korner, motorcycles are leading in the e-mobility uptake in Africa because they are easier to electrify than others. “Motorcycles have the smallest battery, and their cost is low.

Many private sector players are manufacturing, assembling or importing electric motorcycles,” he said. In addition, Korner said introducing bus fleets is also gaining popularity across Africa, with many private companies investing in the sector.

Africa will not reach all the EV goals set by the developing world, but it can and has so far adapted the renewable and sustainable energy narrative to suit its context. Public buses and boda bodas are leading the way and will continue to do so into the future. ESI