Uganda’s Kiira Motors unveils ‘Africa’s first solar bus’
A solar-powered bus described by its Ugandan makers as the first in Africa has been driven in public.
Kiira Motors’ Kayoola electric bus was shown off at a stadium in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
One of its two batteries can be charged by solar panels on the roof which increases the vehicle’s 80km (50 mile) range.
The makers now hope to attract partners to help manufacture the bus for the mass market.
Kiira Motors’ chief executive Paul Isaac Musasizi told BBC News that he had been “humbled” by the large and positive reaction to the test drive.
People have been excited by the idea that Uganda is able to produce such a vehicle and Mr Musasizi said he wanted it to help the country “champion the automotive, engineering and manufacturing industries” in the region.
He also hopes that it will generate employment, predicting that by 2018, more than 7,000 people could be directly and indirectly employed in the making of the Kayoola.
But backing from international companies, which make vehicle parts, is essential for the project to take off.
The vision is that by 2039 the company will be able to manufacture all the parts and assemble the vehicle in Uganda.
The 35-seat bus is intended for urban areas rather than inter-city use because of the restrictions on how far it can travel.
If it is mass produced, each bus would cost up to $58,000 (£40,000), which Mr Musasizi says is a a competitive price.
Kiira Motors grew out of a project at Uganda’s Makerere University, which is now a shareholder in the company, and it has also benefitted from government funding.
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Idlers at best. Fact: You cannot power a practical three-wheeler using solar power let alone a bus. This is sensationalism/fund raising from the government.Teach the kids some good skills to machine good diesel engine parts.
Waafrika tuko na umeeffi saa ingine. You dont expect them to make a scania or a mercedes and its their first trial. Wahindi wanakuwanga proud of their mahendra and tata even though its a poorer vehicle. And eventually they made it. From the old mahendra police were using, to today’s mahendra(kanu ate police landrover money and gave them mahendra, which were a donation for coffee farmers). Tata even bought jaguar/landrover as the now grew. with engineering, if you dont start you wont get anywhere. Even Chinese cant design good vehicles or planes but they are catching up with the west even though most of the time they just steal designs.
We dumped nyayo pioneer after stealing everything . Now if we are to start we will have to start fro zero and take years to learn how to make computer controlled vehicles.
Thought they are using special solar panels, kube they are using the ordinary ones. Solar power technology as it is, is still inefficient to power any vehicle.
Don’t believe everything you read.This project as very many others,are ‘hijacked’ by the politicians for political gain.I live here.I know how things work.This country is a very real “Animal Farm” where anything and everything can be made to reflect even the crudest of statistics for the limelight.Now check the dates carefully.It 's supposed to be a project initated in Dec 2015.Particularly meant to concide with the campaigns.That is supposed to make up for huge budgetary shortfalls that occur every year.Use your bongo bwana.
Secondly,Museveni milks every opportunity to the maximum.He can travel with a 40+ car convoy (inluding ambulance and mobile toilet) to go and open a tap 500km away.That he wasn’t personally available at this launching is telling.It is a fraud.The only thing that man is good for is telling lies.