By Zainab Mohammed
Nairobi, Kenya: Emboo river camp at the Maasai Mara national reserve is among the few camps across the country that has fully adopted a complete fleet of electric safari vehicles.
William Ole Santian, one of the eco lodge’s co-founders says the move to transform their diesel land cruisers to electric safari vehicles is one of the main reasons the camp unlike many other camps survived the harsh economic impact of the pandemic.
“When we transformed our full fleet of safari vehicles to electric, the move came from a desire to not only revolutionize the safari experience but also to conserve the environment. However, the move came in handy during the pandemic when fuel was scarce and many camps couldn’t access it due to curfews and movement restrictions across the country,” he said.
He says an electric car model showcased at a U.N conference by a Kenyan startup inspired their current car model.
“There was this U.N meeting where tech startups in the conservation space showcased their inventions. That’s where my partner and I bumped into the car models and began our journey to going fully electric,” he said.
According to the lodge owner, the transformation of the vehicles takes about 10 to 14 days, giving new life to old diesel vehicles by replacing the normal car engines with electric motors.
“So, what this Kenyan electric mobility company does is, they remove the normal car engines and replace them with electric motors. They also add a battery management system and a controller to fully transform the vehicle,” Santian explained.
Zero-emission vehicles commonly known as electric vehicles are not a foreign concept in the Kenyan market. Combustion-free vehicles are slowly penetrating the transport sector promising to be the future of sustainable public and private transport solutions
The transformation cost of one safari vehicle is a little over ksh. 4 million. However, William says the investment pays off in the end.
“The cost is expensive when you start but you can get a return on your investment two to three years down the line. Currently, we save up to close to ksh.14 million in operational costs which includes fuel cost,” he said.
Apart from saving heavily on fuel many camps in Kenya are now choosing to go electric because of the silent safari experience that comes with the use of electric vehicles.
“The electric vehicles are completely silent and this elevates the Safari experience for guests in the wild. We get guests from different parts of the world who come to visit just to experience a quiet safari in the Mara,” he said.
The charging system for the vehicles is installed by the mobility company and it takes about 8 hours for a vehicle to fully charge.
“We charge our vehicles on a need basis. The charging system takes quite several hours therefore we schedule the entire process to ensure smooth operations and that no vehicle is stranded in the wild due to lack of power,” he said.
AT Roam Motors
At the Roam Motors (formerly Opibus) workshop in Nairobi, the plans to create a combustion-free transport sector are well on course. The electric mobility company that has already transformed electric safari vehicles for over 15 camps in Kenya, has also delved into electric motorcycles and a 51-seater electric bus in a pilot program.
“The future of public transport is going electric. The untapped potential in the electric world is massive and could transform the public transport sector to a much more sustainable industry for example an operator making twice the amount of money they were making in a day,” said Roam Motors engineer Lumbi Muchui.
Muchui says the biggest challenge to electric vehicle use in Kenya remains to be accessibility to electric vehicle charging points even as more and more charging points pop up throughout the capital.
“The same convenience that combustion engines have with petrol stations is the same convenience we are also pushing for with charging infrastructure. We have made a lot of progress with the charging systems and also other players are coming into the market offering similar systems, however, more and more needs to be done for us to achieve a combustion-free sector.
In 2021 the Kenya power and lighting company announced plans to install electric vehicle charging points along major highways and malls across the country. The multi-billion project that aims to build a network of public electric vehicle charging points will play a big part in overcoming one of the biggest hurdles in the use of electric vehicles in the country.
The electricity distributor joins Kenya electricity generating company KenGen which also announced its plans to invest in electric car charging systems. The two giants hope to milk the car charging points as a lucrative new stream of income. Further to help encourage the adoption of electric vehicles the government reduced excise duty on the importation of electric cars from 20% to 10%.
During cop 26 in Glasgow, Kenya alongside 30 other countries committed to making zero-emission vehicles the new normal by ensuring they are accessible affordable, and sustainable not later than 2030 in market leader countries and 2040 among the rest of the world.
As Kenya joins the global push to promote the use of electric vehicles and reduce reliance on petrol and diesel, the high price of the vehicles, insufficient charging infrastructure, and energy-storing batteries continue to be the biggest hurdle in the adoption and growth of the electric vehicles industry.
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Zainab Mohammed and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
