No Special Treatment When It Comes To ICE Ban, Ethiopia Tells Diplomats — They Can Only Buy EVs, Just Like Everybody Else!

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Diplomats get a lot of special privileges all over the world, which must be nice, but there are no special privileges when it comes to allowing imports of new ICE vehicles in Ethiopia, it seems. When Ethiopia implemented an immediate ban on new internal combustion engine vehicle imports earlier this year, it caught many by surprise. Ethiopia is actually — well, probably — the first country in the world to ban the importation of internal combustion engine vehicles. Whilst most countries have pledged to ban the registration of ICE vehicles in 2030 and beyond, Ethiopian has done it now in 2024. Ethiopia has even beaten countries like Norway that had announced bans years ago, with those bans kicking in 2025.

A lot of organisations probably plan new vehicle purchases well in advance and perhaps they have been startled by this immediate ban on new ICE vehicle imports. I assume some of these organisations — such as embassies, NGOs, and others — probably have been seeking further clarification on the ban and perhaps some have even been asking for exemptions to bring in some new ICE vehicles, citing that they had planned these purchases a while ago. Most likely those vehicles that had already been purchased or were in transit at the time the ban was announced would be permitted. It would seem that perhaps more enquiries or requests have been coming in after that because Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs felt it was necessary to issues a statement/notice to all Diplomatic and Consular Missions as well as regional and international organisations based in Ethiopia that said:

“in light of the pressing challenges posed by climate change and Ethiopia’s commitment to contribute to emission reduction and transition to renewable energy, the importation of vehicles using fuels (petrol and diesel) for internal combustion engines is prohibited. All those with diplomatic privileges are required to continue importing only electric vehicles.”

Its interesting to note that this statement came out this week, just a couple of weeks after a letter addressed to several government departments, including the Customs Commission, from the Finance Ministry relaxed import restrictions on some of the 38 product categories. The Finance Ministry’s letter did reiterate that imports of fully built internal combustion engine passenger cars and three-wheelers are still banned. Knocked-down kits for locally assembly of internal combustion engine vehicles are allowed. However, as the majority of vehicles in Ethiopia have traditionally been imported as fully built units, this ban is essentially a total ban on ICE cars. Another point to note is that while the country is trying to encourage the local assembly of vehicles, there has been an inclination towards supporting the assembly of EVs over ICE vehicles.

So, it seems this specific letter to reiterate that the ICE ban remains in place to the diplomatic community may have come after the ministry had received some requests for exemptions. I am only assuming that is the case, but why else would a whole ministry issue a statement directed to a specific community? Some people wanted to import some ICE vehicles is the best guess here.

It is interesting as well because one would think some members of international organisations and the diplomatic community are part of organisations that are more likely to have been promoting sustainable goals, etc., so should they not be the ones to quickly get onboard with EV compliance? They are also more likely to be the kind of organisations that can afford new EVs as compared to other organisations. No more new diesel-guzzling Land Cruisers, then!

No special treatment for diplomats in this case. They need to buy EVs just like everyone else. Imagine that! Being compelled to go for newer and better technology. It’s not such a bad thing, hey?

Of course, such a drastic move by Ethiopia was always going to introduce  a lot of challengers, as there are still a lot of barriers to EV adoption that include lack of charging infrastructure and adequate technicians to work on EVs. A lot of capacity building is ahead. It is going to be interesting to see how all of this evolves.

One can understand Ethiopia’s motivation for all of this, though. Ethiopia’s motivation? A high fossil fuel import bill of over $5 billion a year, taking a huge chunk of the country’s scarce foreign currency resources. Energy security and self-sufficiency was another major driver. Ethiopia recently commissioned the first units from the 5,150 MW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The GERD will add another ~15,500 GWh of clean electricity to the country’s energy mix. This means Ethiopia now has some exceptionally good locally generated renewable energy that can be used to substitute a significant portion of that huge import bill.