A mountain unexpectedly appeared in Nairobi, Kenya, during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities asked the city’s thousands of private bus operators to stop operating in order to slow the spread of the virus. According to businessman Jit Bhattacharya, “the air completely cleared within three days.” Around 90 miles away, “You could see Mount Kenya… crystal clear.”
Bhattacharya also recognized a chance. Kenya has a surplus of grid capacity, produces 90% of its electricity from renewable sources—mostly geothermal and hydropower—and imports almost all of its petroleum-based fuels. What if the transportation industry could benefit from clean energy? It might be able to assist the city in improving. Perhaps Mount Kenya will once again be a constant presence in Nairobi.
The Kenyan capital is home to over five million people, and matatus, privately owned minibuses and shared taxis, “are critical to the way people in Nairobi get around,” explains Christopher Kost, Africa program director at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. “In the city, we have 40% of trips on public transport.”
The difficulty we are currently experiencing is that these matatus are snarled in traffic, he continues. “People experience delays, and the service is frequently unreliable. We need to address those problems.
The issue might be resolved with electric buses. Bhattacharya is currently the chief executive officer and co-founder of BasiGo, a mobility startup vying to electrify the city’s buses. The business is not by itself. Roam, a Swedish-Kenyan electric vehicle manufacturer, has its sights set on the mass transit market in Nairobi. This year, both are introducing bus fleets that might usher in a new era for the city’s renowned matatu culture.
BasiGo started by importing two 25-seat buses from Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD, and began a pilot scheme in March 2022. Operating on a fixed route in Dandora, a neighborhood in east Nairobi, the CEO says the two buses have carried 175,000 passengers and driven over 135,000 kilometers (84,000 miles) to date. “What’s most remarkable is that in that entire time, they’ve had less than two days of technical downtime,” he adds.
In the coming weeks, 15 more buses will hit the streets. These vehicles have been imported as kits, which are being constructed in the coastal city of Mombasa, creating jobs and reducing taxes, Bhattacharya explains.
Rather than operate its fleet, BasiGo is selling buses directly to Nairobi’s private operators through a “pay-as-you-drive” scheme. Bhattacharya says that in doing so, buyers can purchase a BYD electric bus for a similar upfront cost as a diesel bus of a similar size.
As part of the deal, drivers receive free bus servicing and maintenance, and free charging. The charging infrastructure – which taps into the national grid – is being deployed along busy routes at stations where buses typically stop overnight. (The aim, says Bhattacharya, is to transition to electric “with no behavior change” on the part of drivers.
The buses from BasiGo have a 250 km (155 mi) range and recharge in four hours. According to the business’s business plan, BasiGo owns the bus’s battery, which means that after eight years or 600,000 kilometers (373,000 miles), the battery is replaced, and the old battery is either given a second life in a non-vehicular application or recycled, according to Bhattacharya..
The startup claims that it has already received more than 100 reservations. By the end of the year, it hopes to have 100 buses operating in Nairobi, and by the end of 2025, it wants to have 1,000.
