By Judith Gicobi
As part of the government-led push for e-mobility, Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has set up an electric vehicle charging station in Nairobi.
KenGen will soon bring in electric cars to test the station and provide data that is essential to bolstering the laws for e-mobility, according to engineer Catherine Nyambala at KenGen.
The information was revealed barely a month after Kenya launched its first electric bus as the transition to e-mobility picks up speed.
The usage of clean-powered vehicles, which will considerably reduce the reliance on diesel and petrol, is a key component of the global effort to reduce pollution.
“At KenGen, we have an electric vehicle charging station already installed and soon we are bringing in the electric vehicles to help in data collection for e-mobility,” stated Mrs. Nyambala during a panel discussion at the Sustainable Energy Conference conducted last week.
“E-mobility is the fastest way that as a country we are going to do the transition because of displacement of fuel.”
Start-up for electric vehicles in Kenya in anticipation of rising demand for ecologically friendly transportation, BasiGo, unveiled a Sh5 million passenger electric bus in March.
The 25-seater bus has a range of 250 kilometers and requires less than four hours to recharge, according to BYD Automotive, the world’s largest manufacturer of electric buses.
According to Kenya Power, there is sufficient power to charge electric vehicles. It was said that at off-peak hours, there is enough electricity to power 50,000 buses and two million motorcycles.
