Kenya’s Government To Acquire 1,000 Electric Vehicles Per Year For Staff
In a meeting held yesterday with National Government Administration Officers, Kenya’s President William Ruto said the Officers are central to the governance and development of Kenya. He also said that as a key pillar of “national stability and in the implementation of development projects across the country,” to help them perform their duties, the government will soon be issuing these officers with electric vehicles, saying these were very cost-effective. “In the next few months, you will be provided with electric vehicles that, once fully charged, can do 300km,” he said.
Local media that reported on the event mentioned that the Kenyan government intends to buy 1,000 electric vehicles for members of its staff by the end of this year, and 1,000 vehicles each year thereafter, until their transport requirements are met. That’s a pretty big commitment and I hope this goal is realized. Fleet operators are usually the ones that drive new car sales, especially in developing countries on the African continent. Local, provincial, and national governments are some of the major vehicle buyers, and if they can start buying electric vehicles, they can really help increase electric vehicle sales in Kenya. These vehicles often end up on the used vehicle market as well, and therefore, would help improve the pool of more affordable electric vehicles on the local market.
The Kenyan government’s move to start buying electric vehicles could be good news for companies that are looking assemble or retail electric cars in the country. The announcement just said “vehicles,” and therefore could include electric buses, trucks, and motorcycles as well, which would be a major boost for Kenya’s nascent electric vehicle ecosystem.
We are starting to see some increased activity in the Kenyan electric mobility ecosystem. Recently the Chinese company Chery announced a new partnership with Kenyan Afrigreen Automobile Limited. This is a $20 million investment in an electric vehicle assembly plant in Kenya with a potential of 3000 direct and indirect jobs. The assembly plant will start operations next month (how cool is that?) with an initial capacity to produce between 5,000 and 6,000 EVs annually. This capacity is remarkably interesting, because at the moment, about 12,000 ICE vehicles are assembled in Kenya each year, meaning that we could have a situation where 33% of the active capacity of vehicle assembly in Kenya could be electric very soon. This excludes other announced plans for more electric car assembly lines in Thika, where annual production capacities are yet to be announced.
These announcements from the Kenyan government that promise to buy at least 1,000 vehicles every year will help stimulate demand and help reassure investors in Kenya’s EV ecosystem. Kenya is one of the most ideal places in the world to drive an EV. Most of the electricity is generated from renewables such as geothermal, wind, hydro, and some utility-scale solar. Kenya also has a spiraling petrol and diesel import bill of over $500 million per month, and therefore, substituting some of those fossil fuel imports with locally generated electricity to power EVs makes a lot of sense.
Images courtesy of The Office of The President
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