The e-mobility race: How economical are e-motorbikes over petrol-powered ones?

They are common among motorbike taxi operators, best known locally as boda bodas, and riders for e-commerce and food delivery start-ups like Jumia, Glovo and UberEats.

Data from Kenya’s Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) shows the number of electric vehicles (EVs) and motorcycles registered in Kenya increased by more than five times in 2023.

Mbugua Kyalo, a boda boda rider who switched to an e-motorbike six months ago tells Citizen Digital he does not look back.

“On a full charge, my bike gives me 80 kilometres. If I need to go longer than that, I can just swap my battery at one of the stations and it costs me between Ksh.100 and Ksh.200, depending on how much the battery is depleted,” Kyalo says.

With his charger at home, he says, charging his battery fully consumes less than one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of power, commonly known locally as a unit. 

One power unit currently costs around Ksh.31.

Despite the bikes’ high price tag, e-mobility companies such as eWaka, Spiro, Roam Motors and Stima highlight reduced operational costs of e-motorbikes, compared to petrol-powered ones, in trying to convince Kenyans of the merits of going green.

“The overall ownership costs of an EV are lower; the fuelling and maintenance costs you avoid by going electric save you a lot in the long run,” Jimmy Tune, the co-founder of eWaka, which began operations in 2023 and whose bike costs about Ksh.260,000.

Tune breaks down how e-motorbikes differ from petrol-powered ones and weighs in on how Kenya can improve to reach its goal of raising EV ownership to 5 per cent of all registered vehicles by 2025.