Uber wants to electrify Kenya
The ride-hailing app teamed up with Opibus to build EV bikes for Africa
Uber, the mobility service provider that popularised ride sharing, and Opibus, an EV company based in Nairobi, Kenya, have teamed up to develop 3,000 electric motorcycles that will be used in Africa.
At the moment, most of these motorcycles are being used in Kenya, where the company is based and where they're actually manufactured, but the goal is to expand in neighbouring countries, provinding an electric ride-sharing alternative to traditional mopeds and motorcycles.
It's an ambitious project. According to data collected by Opibus, the motorcycle industry is the single largest employer in Kenya, with over 1.2mln jobs, and on top of that, there are 1.6 million motorcycles registered in the country. And almost all of those vehicles, as you can imagine, are powered by petrol or diesel.
The question, as ever, is how are you going to charge these bikes, and where? What do you think?
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Comments (21)
How exactly are they going to pull this off in a third-world country? I just don’t see it working out.
Kenya has enough resources. It being a 3rd world country can't stop this from working.
It could, but it isn’t guaranteed to down this idea.
Uber will have to build the power grid and charging stations, as well as supplying the bikes. Sounds like a lofty goal, but if Uber doesn’t do it, China will.
Just Carpetbomb the desert with solar panels, or make the animals generate power on dynamo cycles
they should first invest in millions of solar panels to give every household electricity
Wonder if their power grid is equipped for the increased demand. Other then that I’m all for giving it a go.
there is no power grid outside the cities.
A electrical engineer here is saying four electric cars on one block would over tax the system and they are already having trouble in California. It would take a generation to change the grid to handle mass electrical cars. I’m not trying to...
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