Electric motorcycle company Ampersand, which has a mission to revolutionize the bodaboda industry in East Africa, is right on track after getting more than 1,000 motorbikes on the road in the last five years.
The emobility startup that has its headquarters and largest client base in Kigali, Rwanda, announced the news in the second week of June 2023, being a testament to how the region is fast adopting clean energy vehicles.
The company also inaugurated its 13th charging station in Kigali while Ampersand Kenya has 3 charging stations so far in Nairobi.
Ampersand prides itself as the largest commercial electric motorcycle company, even though its main focus remains producing climate friendly batteries that can be used by any electric motorbike brand.
The news came on the back of another tremendous achievement in Kenya by BasiGo which unveiled the first public vehicle electric charging station in Nairobi.
The focus by clean energy startups on public transport is key in ensuring transition of greater impact not just on the environment but also on the high cost of doing business which in turn decreases income.
According to Ampersand, an EV bodaboda rider takes home over 40% more of what they would normally earn if they were using a petrol engine motorcycle.
The difference in earnings are a result of low maintenance and fuelling costs for electric motorcycles compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycles. The company says all their motorcycles are still on the road four years on.
The challenge, like most clean energy installations and vehicles though, comes in the initial costs of acquiring the bikes. The electric bikes currently cost about $200 more than their fossil fuel counterparts.
The Ampersand model that boosts electric motorcycle uptake
In view of this, Ampersand has both a hire purchase model and a lease model where a rider can pay in instalments or just hire the bike.
Electric motorcycle riders do not really stop at he charging station to recharge their batteries, instead they swap them with already full capacity battery in a span of two minutes and get back on the road.
A full battery does between 70 – 80 kilometres, making them more efficient for urban transport than rural movement.
Bodaboda (commercial motorcycle taxis in East Africa) is arguably the biggest means of transport in both urban and rural areas in East Africa.
Kenya alone has over 2 million motorcycle taxis – although the number maybe higher – and represents one of the biggest frontiers in emobility in East Africa.
Ampersand targets to have at least 3,000 electric motorcycles on the roads by the end of 2023. This is an achievable feat if current data on adoption of their bikes is anything to go by.
The EV company first tested their motorcycles in 2018 in Kigali and officially launched in 2019 with just 20 electric bikes and three charging stations. By 2021, they had slowly gotten to 60 EVs and the graph turned vertical in 2022 with the company manufacturing 20 bikes every week, most of them being preorders.
Having established the viability of electric motorcycles in public transport, it was time to establish Ampersand Kenya in 2022. The company got to 800 vehicles and performed 80,000 battery swaps by the end of the same year.
“Our team is incredibly proud of this achievement. Our e-motos have been embraced by the community as a reliable, climate-friendly and cost-effective mode of transportation. We are ramping up local production of our battery packs to meet growing client demand for our e-motos and continuing to innovate for a more sustainable public transport option for East Africans. ~ Alp Tilev, co-founder and CTO of Ampersand.
The strides made by Ampersand are especially important in the light of the exit of the pioneer electric taxi company in Kenya Nopea Ride.
With a target of getting to 600,000 electric motorcycles on the roads by 2030, this is a revolution worth the effort.
Ampersand charging stations in Nairobi
While speaking to Moshek Africa Media, Ampersands communications lead Ian Mbote confirmed the locations of the company’s charging stations in Nairobi.
Ampersand charging stations in Nairobi: Hurlingham, Mt. View, Dagoretti, Ngara, Thika Road, Eastleigh, Kayole, Rongai, Kitengela, Mombasa Road
