Welcome to Green Rising – So we drank tea with Josh Whale, the CEO of EV maker Ampersand. He has a credible claim to have sold the first African-made electric motorbike this week six years ago. 

One question came up at the end of a long discussion about the state of the EV sector on the continent: “Who are your customers?” 

Josh was very clear. “They are all commercial,” he said. “We almost never sell to people for private use.” This seemed both plausible in Africa and extraordinary in general.  

We consulted Ampersand peers. Turns out they agree. EVs in Africa are a business thing. African consumers dramatically lag the commercial sector. 

Talk to makers of electric motorbikes, they only ever mention riders using their products as taxis. 

The same for the investors who fund the growing list of production sites springing up on the continent. 

The picture is similar with electric cars. Perhaps not quite as stark. But here too companies more than private individuals are in the sales queues at showrooms. 

Ride-hailers such as Uber and Bolt are the main buyers. Fleets of four-wheel taxis are going electric, ready to log quieter, cleaner miles. 

Same with electric bicycles. It’s not salarymen who buy them to get to the office or take children to school. In Africa, it’s urban delivery companies such as Glovo that power bike sales. 

And naturally, the market for electric buses and trucks is entirely commercial. 

Africa’s business-only EV sector is in contrast to the West and Asia, where consumers are the main, err, drivers.

Nine out of ten new cars sold in Norway last year were powered by batteries. The government has set a target of only selling electric vehicles this year. Most of them are bought by private citizens. 

Oil-producing Norway “will be the first country in the world to pretty much erase petrol and diesel engine cars from the new car market," said Christina Bu, head of the Norwegian EV association.

That’s the other end of the spectrum. 

From Germany to the US, developed nations sit in between. Teslas have been increasingly common in their school parking lots. And in China the proportion of new EVs sold has now surpassed 50%. Mostly private.

Why does Africa tick so differently? 

There are two reasons. One, African consumers are much poorer. They can’t afford new EVs (and used ones are yet to arrive at scale). EVs are still more expensive than fuel cars, and Africa’s often high import tariffs make that situation worse. 

Businesses in Africa, on the other hand, have cash flows. They may not match peers to the north. But they have disproportionately greater access to capital than consumers. And they use vehicles for longer. 

The lower operating cost of an EV (given electricity is cheaper than fuel) is more valuable to a business than a private individual — because commercial vehicles tend to log more miles. Many drive constantly. And if every mile becomes cheaper, the business may be tempted to invest in an EV, despite the higher capital cost. 

Unlike consumers, who only drive for a limited time per day. 

Motorbike taxis go hundreds of miles daily and need fuelling several times during a twelve-hour shift. Savings from going electric are substantial. 

In Kigali, some routes on electric motorbike taxis are now 20% cheaper than on fuel bikes – because the running costs are lower. EV drivers underbid fuel competitors… and still make money. 

Will Africa eventually follow the global norm or remain an outlier? 

There are reasons to believe that non-commercial EV ownership will catch up. 

• Prices are coming down already and are likely to come down even further. BYD, the largest Chinese EV maker, this week announced slashing its prices by a third (thanks to overcapacity in a trade war). 

• Charging networks are expanding in Africa, belatedly following the trajectory of developed economies. This is more important to private individuals who want to be able to go anywhere than it is to many commercial vehicles who ply fixed routes (or have large enough batteries to only need charging overnight). 

• China is about to open the flood gates for second-hand EVs. It has built a specific used-EV export terminal in Shanghai.

An early indicator of change is here. Luxury EVs are arriving in Africa. Teslas are still rare. But top-end Chinese e-SUVs are coming by the boatload. 

• Chinese luxury SUV manufacturer Rox Motor recently signed a deal with Ghana’s Ronor Motors to exclusively distribute its extended range electric vehicles in West Africa.

• Its flagship model, the Rox 01, is an all-terrain luxury hybrid SUV. The automaker with a global reach already operates in Egypt and Libya. 

Blue collars are getting competition at the charging station. When will we spot the first of the iconic white UN Toyota Land Cruisers running on a battery? Of course not in the bush... Most are used for shopping.

Number of the week 

… of the 2024 project volume at Proparco, the French development agency, focused on Africa, with $1.4 billion of the $3.1 billion total. With 200 projects worldwide, Africa ran ahead of Latin America ($673 million), the Middle East ($243 million) and Asia ($225 million).

Network corner

Top green jobs from…

• CI Ventures: Director, Policy and Incentives (South Africa)

• Sanergy: Fundraising General Manager (Kenya)

• BURN Manufacturing: Head of Electric Sales (Ghana)

• BASF: Supply Chain Manager, Agricultural Solutions (Egypt)

• Solar Panda: Sales & Field Operations Manager (Senegal)

• Scatec: HR Manager (Tunisia)

• Baker Hughes: Lead Services Specialist -Project Management (Nigeria)

• Sun King: Partnerships Associate Francophone West Africa (Cameroon)

• One Acre Fund: Agroforestry Associate (Malawi)

• Aptiv: Quality Engineer (Morocco)