Inchcape & BYD Partner In New Distribution Agreement For Ethiopia!
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In an unprecedented move some months ago, Ethiopia became effectively the first country in the world to ban the import of internal combustion engine vehicles. That ban was not some futuristic target for 2030 or 2035. It was an immediate ban on the import of ICE cars, with no exceptions.
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.
This ban, along with reduction of import duties and taxes for electric vehicles, has led to a surge in the population of electric vehicles in Ethiopia. Like a lot of countries on the African continent, Ethiopia has an exceptionally low motorisation rate. Ethiopia has a population of 126 million people, but the total number of vehicles registered in Ethiopia is around 1.2 million. Most of these vehicles are over 20 years old. According to reports and announcements from the Ethiopian government, Ethiopia had a plan to catalyse adoption of electric vehicles in Ethiopia with a 10-year target to see 148,000 electric cars and close to 50,000 electric buses on Ethiopia’s roads by 2030. However, Ethiopia has made incredible progress on this path to the extent that the Ministry of Transport and Logistics recently said that this target of over 100,000 electric vehicles has already been met in just the first two years of this plan! How cool is that?
Due to this incredible progress, the target has since been bumped up to close to 500,000 in the 10-year period. Let’s take a moment to take this all in. So, in just 2 years, locally assembled EVs and imported EVs have added almost 10% to Ethiopia’s current fossil fuel vehicle registration total!
Most of the electric cars that have been coming to Ethiopia have been brought by independent dealers. Most of these are used as well as low mileage and even brand new parallel imports of made-in-China EVs such as the Toyota bZ4x EV, Mercedes-Benz EQ range, Kia EVs, VW’s ID.4 and ID.6, as well as the Changan Benben E-Star.
It looks like EV giant BYD has been looking carefully into all this action in Ethiopia. BYD has officially entered the Ethiopian market! Inchcape has this week signed an agreement with BYD to distribute the New Energy Vehicle (NEV) manufacturer’s cars in Ethiopia.
The deal between the two companies is their first distribution agreement in Africa, adding to existing agreements in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Singapore. It underpins Inchcape’s strong relationships with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and understanding of the markets it operates in, as the company continues delivering its ambition of being the world’s leading automotive distributor.
The agreement to distribute BYD’s cars in Ethiopia is being delivered through Inchcape company MOENCO. Ethiopia’s plan to increase NEV adoption is aligned with Inchcape’s own commitment to the mobility transition.
Francis Agbonlahor, Managing Director, Inchcape Africa said: “This strategic partnership between MOENCO and BYD marks a pivotal moment in the Ethiopian automotive landscape, as we work hand-in-hand to lead the charge in providing efficient, technologically advanced, and intelligent green energy mobility solutions.”
Inchcape’s partnership with BYD in Ethiopia means customers can benefit not only from an exciting range of NEVs, but also the value-added services Inchcape can offer through OEMs, like parts and after-sales support. The distribution agreement to offer BYD’s EVs is set to begin from December 2024.
BYD has been on a roll, launching a lot of models in the past year, as discussed by Zach in this article. BYD has also been ramping up production of electric vehicles in a big way. This is one of the reasons why BYD was able to be the first company to sell over 500,000 electric vehicles (including BEVs and PHEVs) in a single month! All of this also allows BYD to expand its global reach.
It seems we get an announcement around BYD entering a new market every week now, with Ethiopia being the latest one. It’s great to see that Ethiopians will now have more access to official vehicles that come with warranties and all the good stuff you don’t get from independent dealers or grey imports. I am quite excited about this. Ethiopia is a left-hand-drive country just like China, which means that Ethiopians would be able to quickly access more affordable EVs such as the BYD Seagull, amongst other vehicles.
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