In 2021, Kenya’s first electric bus factory, BasiGo, launched amid fanfare, promising to cut emissions and pioneer Africa’s EV future. Several months later, the buses sat idle in Nairobi depots. The reason for this was the $40,000 price tag, which was triple the cost of alternatives like diesel as at then and no charging stations outside the city center. Fortunately for the company, things did go a bit well later after the implementation of its Pay-As-You-Drive model in 2022.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), children as young as 7 mined cobalt under armed guards, their hands raw from extracting the mineral powering smartphone and electric car batteries. This dissonance defined Africa’s EV revolution as a global push for green mobility that entrenches resource extraction, sidelines our local needs, and prioritises foreign markets over our sovereignty.
Africa’s Electric Vehicle Market Is Growing But Faces Challenges
Africa’s EV market is projected to hit $28 billion by 2030, driven by climate pledges and mineral demand. Yet the continent’s roads tell a different story. In Lagos, traffic jams burn ₦4 trillion yearly in fuel with most cars in the country being imported from Asia, Europe and North America. The EV boom, rather than solving these crises, risks amplifying them by replacing oil dependency with battery colonialism.
Congo Supplies Most Cobalt But Workers Are Poor and Suffer
The DRC produces 70% of the world’s cobalt, a key EV battery component. Yet, Congolese miners earn less than $2 a day digging up the mineral, which is shipped raw to Chinese refineries and sold to Tesla, LG, and Volkswagen. In Kolwezi, villages near mines report toxic runoff poisoning water supplies, yet no EV giant funds cleanup. They take the cobalt to save their environment.
Foreign firms like CMOC and Glencore dominate mining, while African governments lack leverage to demand local refining or fair royalties. The DRC’s 2018 mining code, which sought to raise cobalt royalties from 2% to 10%, was gutted after EU and U.S. lobbyists threatened divestment.
Electric Vehicles Pushed on Africa Are Too Expensive and Not Practical
There is a mirage of green mobility. Foreign automakers and NGOs push EVs ill-suited to African realities. Volkswagen’s pilot in Rwanda offered over $40,000 ID.4 electric SUVs, which were unaffordable in a nation where 60% of the population lived under $2/day. UNDP’s e-mobility grants fund charging stations in Accra to drive the green transition but ignore the 600 million Africans lacking constant, reliable and affordable electricity. Even China’s BYD, which also dominates Kenya’s e-bus market, relies on imported batteries, creating a trade deficit that cancels emission gains.
Africa’s Public Transit Crisis Is Being Ignored
The fixation on private EVs ignores Africa’s true mobility crisis, which is a collapsing public transit. In Lagos, where 17 million residents rely on rickety “danfo” buses, foreign investors pour millions into ride-hailing apps like Bolt and Uber, which serve the elite while worsening traffic.
Amid the chaos, African innovators are redefining e-mobility on their own terms. Roam, an e-mobility company in Kenya designs electric motorcycles for matatu drivers, using swappable batteries charged via solar kiosks. Priced at $1,500, they pay for themselves in a year. Kiira Motors, a state owned enterprise in Uganda built Africa’s first electric bus, the Kayoola. Ampersand, an electric transport energy company in Rwanda retrofits gas bikes with batteries, cutting the fuel costs of riders by 50% and earning carbon credits reinvested in local grids. These solutions prioritize affordability and context. When Roam’s bikes faced range anxiety in rural Kenya, engineers partnered with asset financiers like Mogo to open in-store locations to facilitate more access.
Foreign Aid Supports EVs But Blocks African Industry Growth
But climate aid in Africa seems to be superficially plausible. Western nations and NGOs tout EV adoption as climate reparations while blocking Africa’s industrial leap. The EU’s Carbon Border Tax penalizes African steel and aluminum exports—materials needed for local EV factories—but exempts European automakers using Congolese cobalt.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s $5 billion Berlin gigafactory sources most of its cobalt from the DRC but invests zero dollar in African battery plants. Elon Musk’s 2020 tweet—“We’ll coup whoever we want!”—haunts lithium-rich nations like Zimbabwe, where U.S. sanctions block Chinese-funded refineries.
Conclusion
For Africa’s EV future to empower rather than exploit, three shifts must be non-negotiable to rewrite the script:
- Local Value Chains should be developed and a ban be placed on raw mineral exports, with in-country refining and battery production being mandated.
- Public transit should be prioritised to redirect climate funds from luxury EVs to electric buses, trains, and bike shares serving the masses.
- Share IP for battery recycling and solar charging, as India did with its $2,500 Tata EV.
We don’t need hand-me-down tech. We need the tools to build our own. The road ahead is steep, but not impossible.
