Rwanda-based Ampersand wants to help all these motorcycle riders switch to electric and help them save money and the environment at the same time. Ampersand’s CEO Josh Whale gives us an update on Ampersand’s progress in Rwanda:
End-to-end, affordable solution solves private charging infrastructure gap and complements local government schemes to accelerate sustainable living and seven to 10 million EV take-ups by 2030
A potential bottleneck could come quite soon on the used EV supply side. Thanks to Japanese OEM’s love of mild hybrids and their quest to prolong the ICE age as long as possible, sales of EVs in Japan have been very disappointing. Sales have been so poor that the market share of EVs in Japan was recently just under 1%.
Even counting used vehicles, the majority of African countries still have very low levels of motorization compared to countries in the developed world. Only a handful of countries have motorization rates above 100 vehicles per 1,000 people.
We continue with our push to show that driving electric in Africa can be a whole lot cheaper than driving ICE. How cheap? In some cases, driving electric is as good as driving for free thanks some really cheap residential electricity tariffs in several countries.
Driving electric in many African countries is a whole lot cheaper than driving ICE. Ghana, like many other African countries, has a very low motorization rate compared to most parts of the developed world. This presents a huge opportunity for another leapfrog moment where consumers can jump straight into the world of EVs, bypassing the ICE Age.
Ghana’s new Automotive Development Policy has encouraged VW, Toyota, and Nissan to look into opening assembly plants in the country. The Ghana Automotive Development Policy provides the necessary framework to establish assembly and manufacturing capacity in Ghana. The initial focus will be on new passenger cars, SUVs, and light commercial vehicles which would include pickups, minibuses, and cargo vans. VW Ghana’s new vehicle assembly plant has already started production in Accra’s North Industrial Area.
The Brookings Institution says consumers in Africa are brand conscious and brand loyal. When it comes to cars, that brand is Toyota! In the brand new vehicle market, the Toyota Hilux is king in South Africa and also tops other charts. Other popular models in the new vehicle market are the Corolla, the Fortuner, and the Yaris.
The company’s mobility products are built from recycled and upcycled materials. Up to 90% of the materials used are sourced locally, with only the electric motors imported from China. They assemble their battery packs using the standard 18650 cells recovered from old laptops, which allows them to lower the costs of their products significantly to levels that are more affordable for their target market.
One of the best ways to reduce emissions going forward is not to restrict the importation of used vehicles but to simply shift to cleaner and safer used vehicles. Used vehicles tend to come in at price points that are more affordable for the target market in most of these African countries.
