Second electric bus company Roam launches in Nairobi
A second electric bus company launched in Nairobi targeting PSV operators. The firm is a Swedish-Kenyan technology company called Roam.
Rome has gone a step further than its competitor BasiGo by providing higher capacity buses. The Roam Rapid can ferry 90 passengers, seated and standing.
While BasiGo has already been testing its electric bus fleet on various routes, Roam is yet to hit the road. However, the demand for electric cars and buses worldwide is growing at rapid speed. In Kenya, taxi app Nopea Ride operates strictly electric taxis.
(Update: Nopea Ride quit the Nairobi market after its parent company Eko Rent Kenya got liquidated)
Motorcycle companies such as Ampersand are also assembling electric bikes for commercial use.
“The focus for the bus has been to design a robust vehicle with best in class carrying capacity, range and comfort to enable mass adoption of clean transport across the continent,” said Dennis Wakaba, the Roam project coordinator.
The Roam electric bus comes with a 384-kWh battery pack that can cover 360 km. That means it can operate a whole day without recharging within the Nairobi Metropolis. The battery charges in less than two hours.
Kenya Power and KenGen announced that they will be installing electric car charging stations in Nairobi and other parts of the country within 2022. The lack of charging stations is perhaps one of the current challenges for commercial electric vehicles.
Electric car owners currently recharge their cars from their own houses. BasiGo also has a leasing plan for its batteries instead of selling them together with the bus.
Nairobi was recently voted as one of the Top 50 cities in the world by Time Magazine due to its improved transport system.