Emobility as a response to meeting SDGs in Africa

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Despite the obvious barriers to deployment, the rise of emobility on the African continent could provide long-term and sustainable solutions to many of its socio-environmental and economic problems. This includes contributing towards reducing atmospheric pollution related to transport as well as the vitality of the automobile industry in Africa, with the resultant industrialisation and job creation.

However, there are some green shoots appearing on the horizon, with the burgeoning last-mile delivery sector in particular showing that Africa is ready for electric vehicles and adapting these to its own conditions and market demands.

Major transition
“The automotive industry is going through a major transition, similar to the shift that was seen over 100 years ago with the mass production of motor vehicles for middle-income families” says Nathan Fredericks, Industry Development Planner, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC). “This transition involves moving from traditional technologies or internal combustion vehicle technologies to electric vehicles, which also includes, for example, hybrid technologies as well.”

Compared to China, which is leading in technology development and production of new energy vehicles (NEVs) with lower cost curves for vehicle production and batteries, Fredericks says the transition for South Africa and the continent will be very different due to, for example, the slower pace of policy development. He adds: “South Africa has recently released the NEV white paper and released draft amendments to various incentive policies, which may assist the adoption. But the matching of support and matching what has been given or provided in developed countries will be a challenge for South Africa and many developing countries.”

“However, we’ve seen positive developments with recent announcements by automotive assemblers in South Africa like Ford and BMW, and with BMW also manufacturing its first hybrid plug-in vehicle in South Africa.”

Followers as opposed to leaders
“I think the global messaging that EVs are not for us is more about a race for technology and onshoring thereof and attracting capital allocation to develop markets” says the IDC executive. He explains: “This means that it will take time for these investments to come to South Africa or the rest of the continent. And that unfortunately places us in a position where we are followers as opposed to leaders. But there are examples in the past, if you look at South Africa, where for example, Eskom has had EV programmes in the early 70s, 90s. The IDC co-funded Project Jewel where we developed a commercial-ready electric vehicle. So, there are some examples where South Africa has led in electric vehicles. The transition will also require substantial financial resources and proactive trade and industrial policy.”

Value-chain-creating activities
Fredericks is optimistic about the continent’s adoption of EVs: “The emobility movement in the continent is really exciting. And it demonstrates one thing, that it always seems impossible until it’s done. There are a few areas where there have been quite a few successes in the continent and you can see things moving forward. There seems to be a strong desire for government to transition their transport services to low-carbon vehicles.”

“For example, if you look at countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda, you’re seeing strong evidence of the transition taking place in those countries. These countries want to create economic and employment opportunities in value-chain-creating activities for the people. I mean, that’s quite evidence. And we’re seeing this coming through policies promoting localisation and automotive policies.”

Challenge of used vehicles
According to Fredericks, there needs to be a slightly different approach to the transition, because the emobility solutions have to be tailored to local conditions and the environment. This is particularly true in applications for last mile delivery and public transport, and this gives rise to an SMME ecosystem where entrepreneurs are providing those unique solutions and in scaling them together with support from government finance and green financing.

He expands: “Some of the challenges we’re seeing on the continent are used vehicles, which are quite prohibitive for not just the adoption of emobility, but also to establish local manufacturing on the continent. Although used vehicles solve the issue of access to transport and affordability of vehicles, from an industrialisation perspective, it creates a lot of limitations. I think the South African example of our automotive supply chain really speaks to what happens when you establish a manufacturing base at, what we call, a complete knockdown (CKD) level, which really stimulates beneficiation and value-creating industries and creates long-term sustainable jobs.”

He adds that industrial policies on the continent also need a level of integration with those other countries in Africa. “We’re seeing a lot of countries adopting similar policies to South Africa, but without the level of integration, all you’re creating at the end of the day is essentially policy islands, which we can try to address through, for example, the Africa Free Trade Agreement or rules of origin. But I believe there’s a greater need for partnerships and alignment at a country level to really unlock the regional value chain opportunities and to create a level of integration where we can build a regional industrial base for transport equipment.” [Read the full interview with Nathan Fredericks here.]

The Ride to COP29
Meanwhile, the countdown has started to the next United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly known as COP29, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11 to 22 November, 2024.

Two emobility enthusiasts, Chris Ehl, co-founder of Wahu Mobility, cycling addict, entrepreneur and humanity activist and Ali Abdo, founder of The Ride to COP29, sustainability leader, eco-adventurer, climate actionist and multi Guinness World Records holder are about to embark on an 8,000-km electric bike ride to the climate summit to raise awareness about climate change. Wahu Mobility has partnered with the Egyptian adventurer, and Ali and Chris will both use Wahu ebikes to cross ten countries in their ecycle journey from Dubai to COP29.

Says Chris: “Wahu Mobility is the first of its kind in Africa. The idea really came out of necessity and transport poverty. Africa is a continent which is going to double in size to 2.8 billion people, right? And there are not very good local transport solutions, right? So, we felt that there was an opportunity to help people get from A to B. It is one of the challenges and then doing it in a sustainable way is another challenge. And the third challenge is people need to make a living, because you will need so many jobs in Africa in the future. And we thought it would be a great combination to design, develop, produce and operate electric bicycle fleets in Africa.”

Wahu started in Ghana with a local, all-Ghanaian team with some support from experts and investors around the world to create a sustainable mobility solution. People can buy the ebike, become employed through the ebike by performing transport services and make a good living. After 18 or 24 months—there are two programmes—they can own the bike.

The freedom of two-wheelers
Ali started his electric motorcycle rides to the COP summits in 2017, when his home country of Egypt hosted the COP27 Sharm El-Sheikh. “I decided to do something different with my electric motorcycle, and I visited all the Egyptian cities on my electric motorcycle to raise awareness about climate change, to empower youth with the needed skills and to highlight the impact of climate change on the Egyptian community. Also to highlight success stories for national projects, local projects, startups, and so on.” Since then, Ali has broken several Guinness World Records, for example, for most cities visited on an electric motorcycle.

Both adventurers love the freedom of two-wheel etransport. Says Ali: “Two wheels is considered a vulnerable transportation method. But it is much easier to do this trip to Baku by car, by the way. And it is much easier to take a flight from Dubai to Baku. But doing it on two wheels, especially on electric bicycles, it gives us an opportunity to communicate with everyone on the road. It give us the opportunity to observe and to collect more stories. And it takes us a lot closer to people on the road.”

Chris concurs: “Yes, bikes are inclusive and they provide space for diversity. Anyone can ride a bike. You don’t need a licence. People of all ages can ride bikes. Women around the world, older people around the world. So everybody can ride bikes, right? And this is what we want to do and showcase.” [Read the full interview with Chris Ehl and Ali Abdo here.]

– This article first appeared in the GREEN ECONOMY EXPRESS, issued by Africa’s Green Economy Summit.