7% Of All New Motorbike Registrations In Kenya In 2024 Have been Electrical!

Good issues are taking place in Africa, particularly within the electrical automobile sector. We’re beginning to see important traction in a lot of nations on the African continent. In Ethiopia, a complete ban on the import of totally constructed ICE vehicles has resulted in an unbelievable enhance within the variety of electrical autos on the roads. In Senegal, a ground-breaking 100% electrical speedy bus transit service is up and operating. A variety of nations are additionally pushing for adoption of electrical buses. Over 90% of all autos imported in most African nations are available in as used autos. With the rising variety of used electrical autos in Europe, China, and America, we’re additionally beginning to see much more used EVs coming to West, East, Central, and Southern Africa.

One of many hottest matters in Africa in the meanwhile, nevertheless, is the rise of the electrical motorbike sector. Bikes are a extremely large deal in quite a lot of African nations, with most of them deployed as taxis. Near 30 million bikes on the continent are used on this motorbike taxi business. With virtually 99% of them nonetheless being inner combustion engine bikes, there’s a large alternative and a big addressable marketplace for electrification. The transfer in direction of electrical autos in Africa, particularly on this electrical motorbike sector, has primarily been pushed by the personal sector by small startup firms.

A lot of the developments in Africa’s electrical motorbike sector have been concentrated alongside what’s now referred to as the “boda belt.” The boda belt, a time period coined by Tom Courtright, is a stretch of nations on the African map the place motorbike taxis have been outstanding through the years. This belt stretches from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. There may be additionally important exercise in North African nations similar to Morocco, the place smaller scooters are used primarily for private transportation, in contrast to in East Africa and West Africa, the place many of the exercise is for business transport functions.

The significance of accelerating the transition to electrical bikes alongside this belt and decarbonizing transport usually is gaining extra consideration. Electrical two-wheelers clear up the air and save drivers on common 45% a yr on gasoline and upkeep, bettering lives and livelihoods and driving entrepreneurship and social mobility. The unit economics will likely be a key driver within the quest to drive adoption. As extra electrical bikes hit the street now, confidence in in electrical bikes in these markets is rising. With a number of firms within the electrical motorbike house now transferring from early commercialization of their merchandise to full business operations at first rate scale, there’s now quite a lot of exercise alongside this boda belt.

One of many nations alongside this boda belt that’s seeing quite a lot of motion and important traction within the electrical motorbike sector is Kenya. There are over 2 million inner combustion engine bikes in Kenya. Bikes make up simply over 50% of Kenya’s whole automobile fleet. Motorbike taxis are popularly referred to as boda bodas in Kenya and different markets. The motorbike taxi business is a crucial phase of Kenya’s financial system. Transitioning this sector to electrical will make an unlimited distinction within the pockets of the house owners of the bikes in addition to the riders. Most of the startups which might be lively in Kenya’s electrical motorbike ecosystem are providing modern financing preparations together with fashions the place one should purchase the motorbike after which lease the batteries, lowering the upfront prices. Vary anxiousness fears are additionally eradicated by providing battery swap companies.

It is usually vital to speed up the adoption of electrical motor autos in Kenya’s largest automobile phase to scale back emissions. Kenya’s grid is already exceptionally clear. Renewables present round 90% of Kenya’s electrical energy era. By steadily rising the penetration of electrical bikes in Kenya, important financial savings in CO2 emissions might be achieved. This may be achieved by incentivizing purchases of recent electrical motorbikes. 2023 was the primary time the Kenyan motorbike gross sales market noticed a noticeable enhance within the share of electrical bikes within the general new registrations market. In 2023, there have been 70,691 bikes offered in Kenya. 2,557 of those had been electrical. Which means 3.6% of bikes offered in 2023 in Kenya had been electrical. That’s virtually 4%. So, we didn’t count on it to be lengthy earlier than the market share reached the crucial 5%, which is mostly considered because the tipping level indicating the beginning of mass adoption. The share of electrical bikes rose to three.6% in 2023 from 2.8% in 2022 and 0.5% in 2021. 2024 was even higher because the market share surged to 7.1%. The KNBS Financial Survey Report (2025) reveals that 68,804 new bikes had been registered Kenya in 2024. Of those, 4862 bikes had been electrical in response to knowledge introduced by the Electrical Mobility Affiliation of Kenya (EMAK). That’s the place the 7.1% market share comes from.

A number of local-based companies have executed an impressive job to construct this business from scratch from about 7 years in the past. After going by way of the varied levels of early pilots, additional pilots, a number of iterations and pivots, leading to a lot of them discovering the candy spot after which graduating into early commercialization phases of their merchandise. These companies needed to dig deep of their analysis and growth phases to provide electrical bikes that may deal with the calls for of the boda boda business, and on the identical time, deal with the native terrain in addition to tough street situations. It is because for his or her merchandise to take off, they actually wanted to make merchandise which might be sturdy sufficient to match or exceed the ICE merchandise which might be at the moment in the marketplace. That meant they might not simply carry off the shelf merchandise and parts from abroad, however they actually needed to adapt their designs for these situations. After that, the subsequent factor was to indicate that these new electrical bikes had a decrease whole price of possession. Then the subsequent step was to forge strategic partnerships with companions which might be already within the distribution and financing ecosystem for conventional bikes. This could unlock vital channels that align with their path to market methods.

It appears all of those efforts are bearing fruit, because the sector is making regular progress given the rising market share of electrical bikes in Kenya. Going from 0 to 7% in about three years is admittedly cool. Nevertheless, it needs to be famous that this market share has been aided by the startling decline within the gross sales of recent bikes in Kenya, from a peak of 285,203 bikes offered in 2021 to simply 68,804 in 2024. This large drop in gross sales has been attributed to decrease client buying energy which has diminished the each day utilization of boda bodas in Kenya, and consequently additionally diminished the each day unit profitability for motorbike taxis because of larger gasoline prices in current occasions. Different components embody larger financing prices on high of elevated sticker costs for some fashions.

Given their decrease whole price of possession, this could possibly be a key second for electrical bikes in Kenya. Gamers within the electrical motorbike business may benefit from this and capitalize on diminished demand for bikes, which have historically been principally ICE bikes through the years, by emphasizing potential financial savings that could possibly be derived from switching to electrical. May we see an additional decline within the general market in 2025? This could imply the market share of electrical bikes would surge to even larger ranges, on condition that a lot of gamers within the Kenya market are beginning to ramp up manufacturing of their electrical bikes. 14% market share for 2025? Allow us to wait and see.