Around 20 million motorcycles are thought to be in use across Africa, according to some estimates. Approximately 5 million of these, according to estimates, are in East Africa. According to the A Dozen Markets and Counting, Opportunity For Two Wheel E-Mobility in SSA report by Persistent Energys, three times as many motorbikes as vehicles are imported into Sub-Saharan Africa each year. Most of these motorcycles are utilized for business, particularly in the motorbike taxi sector. A lot of attention is being paid to the motorcycle industry when it comes to electrification because motorcycles are popular throughout Africa.
In the young electric motorbike industry, which spans the continent’s diverse regions, there are more than 30 firms now operating. Over the past three years or more, many of these firms have operated pilot programs; they are currently attempting to expand their operations. There has been a lot of interest in the electrification of the motorcycle industry for a number of reasons, including:
the size of the addressable market. With the advent of on-demand services and e-commerce, Africa’s fleet of motorcycles is predicted to continue expanding. By 2040, it’s envisaged that 50–70% of all motorcycle purchases in this market would be electric, or about 4 million electric motorcycles a year . Unlike larger vehicles, where the initial purchase price of electric cars is still significantly more than equivalent ICE cars, electric motorcycles are more or less priced on par with ICE models. Youth (under 35) find employment mostly in the motorcycle industry, which provides an immediate potential to improve lives by lowering operating costs and boosting revenues. One of the primary forms of transportation in many parts of the continent, offering a significant opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions in the transportation sector. Unlike the larger vehicle segments, where vehicle finance is generally less developed, the motorcycle industry has well-established financing facilities. The Pay-As-You-Earn and PayGo solutions that aid in lowering entry hurdles. Customers can rent a motorcycle for up to 24 months by paying per day or per week. In some regions, after joining up, customers can ride off with a brand-new motorcycle in less than two hours. Through scalable and adaptable vehicle finance ecosystems, the Pay-As-You-Go models, mobile money platforms, and the continuous growth of the FinTech industry can be significant growth drivers for the motorbike industry.
Key collaborations between participants in the financial industry, as well as the rest of the ecosystem, and electric mobility companies are essential to realizing all of this potential. The expansion of Ampersand’s e-mobility program in Rwanda is the result of a partnership between Bboxx , a super platform that gives users access to critical goods and services, and Ampersand , an e-mobility provider of sustainable transport solutions in East Africa.
The program is now being implemented in Kigali, Africa’s greenest city, after a successful initial experiment in the nation. Over the next few years, tens of thousands of e-motos (electric motorcycles) will be provided to taxi drivers in Rwanda.
Bboxx will finance the e-motos using its proprietary asset financing AI model, and mobile payments will be handled by Bboxx Pulse, a fully integrated operating system that optimizes Bboxx’s business operations. The e-motos and battery changes will be provided by Ampersand.
According to Ampersands data , the pilot is intended to give taxi drivers in the capital the option of using motorbikes for their commercial endeavors at a daily cost that is 40% less expensive than using petrol vehicles. With their combined efforts, the partners want to eventually see millions of e-motos on African roads, bringing much-needed clean mobility options to the continent’s fast growing metropolitan centers.
Bboxx’s CEO and co-founder, Mansoor Hamayun, stated: “This is an amazing opportunity for Bboxx, and we are happy to be cooperating with a like-minded firm like Ampersand to extend access to sustainable mobility throughout Africa.” It’s amazing to finally reach this milestone because e-mobility has been a key business priority sector we have been looking to develop into for a while. Ampersand has so far demonstrated excellent innovation in business, but more significantly, we share the same fundamental objectives of improving lives and releasing potential in our effort to fulfill all of the UN’s SDGs.
It will require everyone doing what they do best to electrify African transportation, according to Josh Whale, CEO of Ampersand. Bboxx offers a unique selection and method for the financing alternatives available to our customers, bringing the e-mobility revolution decades of experience in offering pay-as-you-go financing to Rwandans at scale. Motorbike taxis make up more than half of all the traffic on East African roads, offering an essential and reasonably priced public transportation service as well as a source of employment in both urban and rural areas. Our electric motorcycles are no different from the majority of motorcycle taxi drivers in that they all needed loans to buy their vehicles. We’re especially enthusiastic about Bboxx’s extensive expertise in arranging financing instruments in clever ways to access global capital markets, including the expanding climate capital trend. All of this frees up Ampersand to concentrate on our core competencies: developing batteries, growing our swap network, creating software, and creating motorcycles—all of which we accomplish more and better each year. We can assist Rwanda in becoming the first nation in the world to electrify more than half of its entire road traffic through strategic alliances like this one with Bboxx, quickly followed by other African nations and in front of nations like Norway.
Ampersand has been in business in Rwanda for about five years and has so far given Kigali access to hundreds of electric motorcycles, as well as swap stations and charging infrastructure, and has also expanded its network to Nairobi in neighboring Kenya.
The move marks Bboxx’s most recent entry into a new business market, offering a variety of necessary clean and sustainable goods and services. Bboxx already sells solar energy home systems, eco-friendly kitchenware, and solar-powered water pumps. Bboxx Pulse is used to manage the company’s daily operations.
Bboxx pictures
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