Africa’s EV revolution has two wheels not four

With his electric motorcycle resting on the curbside, Stephen Omusugu explains the economics. The two-wheel-taxi man from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, went electric a month ago, after watching several of his colleagues do the same. He took out a loan for the new e-bike, which will take him two years to repay in daily instalments. Added to that is the cost of charging the bike’s electric battery or swapping it for a full one each day. All told, Mr Omusugu reckons, he can make 2,500 Kenyan shillings ($19.35) every day, two and a half times as much as when he rode a petrol-powered bike.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Two wheels green”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Its mercenary model is still effective in Africa’s most fragile places

It is one of the few remaining institutions holding the country together

From a proxy force in south Lebanon to regime change, what’s old is new again

Israel’s government says no, but America is demanding the ramping up of supplies

The THAAD battery could indicate Israeli restraint on Iran

They are 2km inside the country, but prepared to go farther