So where’s does the opportunity lie in that field? Retrofitting? And for 300K what do you get spec wise?
Kenya will always follow what the West is doing.
Once the U.S has shifted to EV by 2040, Kenya will follow na sio tafadhali.
Alafu Kenyans watanunua petrol cars wapi kama manufacturers kama wote wakuwa wakiuza electric vehicles by 2040?
Kenya will be forced to adapt – kweni kuna gari tunatengeneza except trolley ya smokey?
Also, auto manufacturers will be making bigger profits by selling EVs because of the new subscriptions model for autonomous technology.
Ukitaka self-driving EV package unalipa monthly subscription kama Netflix ndio utumie software.
But on the bright side, it’s easier to make an electric vehicle than a petrol vehicle – with a little bit of expertise, ata wewe unaeza fungua company yako ya kutengeneza EVs.
That’s a very very long game one would be playing then to invest in the EV market now.
Smart investors have already started.
Fanya research yako vizuri.
My opinion as someone who’s very knowledgeable about EVs: importing EVs like Teslas is not a long-term investment.
The minute Tesla and other EVs open centres in Africa, utaumia. EV automakers like Tesla is cutting off everyone from the dealerships, to the third parties selling spare parts.
Think outside the box. Supplying or manufacturing EV batteries is where the money is – or converting gasoline to EVs.
Keep in mind that EVs don’t have an engine – you mostly need batteries and a simple motor to convert.
Just last year, Optibus (a Kenyan EV conversion company) raised 7.5 million dollars. It also partnered with Uber to supply 3,000 electric motorcycles.
Even when the government or private companies want to convert some of their fleet to to EVs, unadhani nani atapata tender? A company like Optibus that already built a reputation.
Alafu saa hii ukienda national parks, KWS na tour companies zimeanza kutumia EVs juu hazina makelele – animals hate noise pollution.
Startups are eyeing Kenya as an African electric vehicle hub
The EV battery market is dominated by about 4 companies, Samsung, CATL, LG Chem and Panasonic. As an African, leave alone Kenyan this effectively cuts you out. The deal with Uber Kenya was to be rolled out this year…umeona hizo electric bikes?
NB Uber doesn’t own the bikes nor the cars, they have to get riders to finance them.
Optibus wanatumia lead iron batteries kufanya conversion. Another alternative is Lithium iron phosphate batteries that are easily available compared to lithium ion batteries – I think Optibus uses those batteries on motorcycles.
When EVs will be adopted, I can bet 90% of EVs in Africa will use lithium iron phosphate batteries while longer range lithium ion batteries will be reserved for Europe and U.S.
Lithium iron phosphate batteries ziko mingi sana unaeza pata ata hapa Kenya – although it’s cheaper to buy in bulk or find a good supplier in China. Ata conversion kit unaeza nunua unafanya watu hiyo kazi.
Hakuna investment haina challenges. What’s important is finding a viable solution.
Then what is the point?
So the big opportunity will be in retrofit and retrofit kits to existing vehicles? At the moment they customize for different vehicles which is prohibitively expensive @ $40K how can that be scaled up to make it cheaper when they customize for different vehicles? The kit itself can be mass manf, the process of installing it though to different vehicles can’t be done in mass so the costs will be high.
Gari ya stima labda Nairobi pekee uku mashinani haiwes mek
Where’s the opportunity in this space?
That’s just an example.
There are so many opportunities if you know how to tackle the challenges.
I read somewhere Uhuru’s son in law is also investing in superchargers.
Anyway, Optibus is expensive because it hasn’t partnered directly with a battery manufacturer. Battery manufacturers like LG, Sony, Panasonic want big orders to supply like 500,000 batteries at a cheap price.
But if you’re doing about 1,000 vehicles, your cost of production will be high because of economies of scale.
Then again, Optibus target customer is not the average Kenyan. The company is converting vehicles for KWS, tour companies, bus companies, companies that want to go green and even government agencies.
For somebody with a tour or a bus company, it makes sense to pay that 40,000 USD since going electric will cut down your fuel cost by 70%.
Why do you think Uber wants electric motorcycles? Not because it cares about sustainable energy, but to cut down operation costs significantly.
That electric bus in town makes a bigger profit margin compared to diesel buses. Also, EVs can go for years with little or no maintenance.
What KWS vehicle have they converted? It’s just the one safari cruiser. Bus companies, which one is operational from them. There’s just BasiGo which is a BYD bus? The supporting infrastructure? Show me a path to scaling here as I’m failing to see one, and the problem is customizing the kits to fit different cars. That doesn’t scale and will remain to be expensive. They say it takes 2 weeks to fit a kit into a car, how does that scale?
Is the money coming from Uber. Short answer, No. Riders have to finance those bikes. It’s just a partnership.
Would need to see their numbers… How many hours it needs to charge and power costs. A bus Sacco made of electric buses, maybe.
Think it was electric motorbikes, and funny enough I’ve seen more LPG taxis than these electric bikes that are touted to replace bodas. How do you get a boda rider to finance such an expensive electric boda?
Of course, if there was no growth projection, Opibus wouldn’t have raised 7.5 million dollars.
Opibus is also selling brand new electric motorcycles with 160 km range at about 150k – this is a very fair price. You can actually spend less than 100 kes. to fully charge the batteries – and this gives you up to 160 km of range.
It assembles the electric motorcycles locally.
Don’t you see the path to scaling there?
Here is another investment opportunity: Instead of going to EV space, you can also invest in electric mobility.
I’m talking electric scooters, electric bicycles, electric skateboards and electric motorcycles.
I think you are talking on behalf of some but not all, mimi sijaona blackout ya stima in a while na hata ikienda in a few minutes inarudi. Kuna areas kama Gigiri na suburb zingine etc hawakatiwi stima wala maji ovyo…EV ya kawaida (wachana na Tesla) charge moja itakupa at the very least 200Kms, na kama unatumia for (home-work) commute daily within Nairobi radius kumaliza hiyo range itakuchukua masiku kadhaa na huwezi kosa stima hizi siku zote, pia angalia wenye wanaeza kununua EV most likely wanaishi mahali kuzuri bila shida za stima.
Big opportunity along highway spaces with 3 phase solar. Petrol stations will see dust. A reseller of solar super chargers will cash out. The whole essence of EV is green grid. Ofcourse windy spots along highways too
Where do you tell the nduthi guy where to charge, as they constitute the biggest number of motorcycle buyers? And they start from 180K. For the other bikers where would they charge on their road trips?
Even Kune Foods raised capital.
Do they invest in these first or wait for a critical mass of EV vehicles to make such ventures viable? What gives first? Will EV buyers purchase vehicles without a charging infrastructure in place?
Ni kama hardware stock haiozi, but having 1st buyers market brand like safcom would count…but count some other rider product like mobile money to be the craze other than supercharging
With the current number of EV vehicles we have, would you put up such an infrastructure? What would inform the location of set up?
Kwanza kabisa I rank opibus among those tech company scams that are eating invesinves’ money but doing nothing on ground. Na kama unataka kuinvest get the right repair and maintenance skills. China will dominate this field bila huruma