Kenyan electric vehicle start-up BasiGo is targeting to sell 20 new passenger electric buses by end of the year in what could potentially earn the firm Sh100 million in the wake of increasing demand for environmentally friendly transport.
The plan follows the successful piloting of two buses that have been operating on two city routes since March as the company gears up to scale up the business line.
Samuel Waweru, head of business development at BasiGo said that the piloting that has been jointly done with City Hoppa and East Shuttle has returned positive results with the buses covering over 50, 000 kilometres in the period.
Each unit goes for about Sh5 million and will make the company one of the early winners of Kenya’s shift to clean e-mobility.
“Our two electric buses have been doing piloting and they have done more than 50, 000 kilometres in total over the four months. By the end of the year BasiGo plans to have more than 20 buses in the country,” Mr Waweru said.
The buses have a seating capacity of 25 passengers and are designed by BYD Automotive— the world’s largest manufacturer of electric buses. The buses have a recharging period of fewer than four hours.
BasiGo had targeted to deliver the first deliveries of the locally assembled units in the second half of the calendar year.
Customers can reserve the K6 electric bus with no deposit and cancellation of an order does not attract penalties.
Momentum has been growing for the adoption of electric vehicles in Kenya amid calls for clean energy solutions to reverse the negative effects of climate change.
Kenya like the rest of the world has joined in the shift to e-mobility in the global push to reduce pollution through the use of clean-powered vehicles that will significantly cut the reliance on diesel and super.
Other two firms that have joined BasiGo in spearheading e-mobility include Opibus which converts diesel and petrol vehicles and motorcycle engines into electric and Kiri manufactures electric motorbikes.
State-owned power utility Kenya Power says that it has enough power to charge 50,000 buses and two million motorcycles during off-peak hours.
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