{"id":6417,"date":"2024-06-19T17:47:22","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T15:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ingenius.ecoledesponts.fr\/?p=6417"},"modified":"2024-06-20T21:54:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T19:54:03","slug":"africa-and-the-transition-to-electric-vehicles-fiction-or-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ingenius.ecoledesponts.fr\/en\/articles\/africa-and-the-transition-to-electric-vehicles-fiction-or-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa and the transition to electric vehicles: fiction or reality?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Dakar’s electric Bus Rapid Transit. Credit: Yao Tsoekeo Amedokpo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Globally, transport accounts for around a quarter of total carbon emissions from fossil fuel use<\/a>. In recent years, growing environmental awareness in political decision-making has led many countries to prioritize “clean mobility”. This situation has been instrumental in reviving the debate around electric propulsion systems, which have become a major entry point for research into alternative-fuel vehicle technologies. As a replacement for conventional vehicles (i.e. those powered by internal combustion engines), which are due to be phased out in several cities and countries in the Global North1<\/a><\/sup> (and gradually in the Global South), electric vehicles represent a key option for decarbonizing transport. Estimated at just a few thousand vehicles at the start of the last decade, the number of electric vehicles on the road worldwide passed the symbolic mark of 25 million <\/a>(passenger vehicles alone) in 2022. According to the declared policy scenario (2022-2030), the number of electric vehicles (passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) worldwide is set to reach 175 million units by 2030. While the bulk of these vehicles are to be found in the Global North, electric vehicle “fever”<\/a> has also spread to emerging and low-income countries, including in Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa opens up to electric mobility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Africa has long remained on the sidelines of this transition, but calls for electrification are receiving an increasingly favorable response from governments and local authorities, international organizations committed to sustainable development, private players and the general public. Several electric vehicle deployment initiatives covering all categories of road vehicles have recently emerged on the continent<\/a>, from micromobility to capacity transportatio<\/a>n. According to data from the International Energy Agency (2022), sales of electric vehicles rose by 90% in 2021, including 85% for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The support policies put in place by public players are helping to create the first electric vehicle niche markets on the continent<\/a>. Mozambique, for example, adopted a national electric mobility strategy in 2019, while countries like Mauritius adopted incentives as early as 2009, halving excise duty<\/sup><\/a> on electric and hybrid cars. Cape Verde and Egypt are leading the way with plans to ban all sales of new conventional vehicles by 2040<\/a>. This measure, unprecedented on the continent, applies to all road vehicles in Cape Verde<\/a> and to passenger vehicles in Egypt<\/a>. Still other countries, such as Uganda<\/a> and South Africa<\/a>, are hoping to achieve a technological “leapfrog” in the automotive industry by developing a local electric vehicle industry. At the city level, the shift is even more dramatic. Some member cities of the Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), such as Dakar(Senegal) have launched their first fully electrified dedicated-lane transport network. Meanwhile, two- and three-wheel electric-powered vehicles are flourishing in several major African capitals such as Cotonou, Kampala, Lom\u00e9<\/a> and Nairobi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A contrasting geography of deployment, but a singular trajectory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite a recent boom, the transition to e-mobility is not proceeding at a uniform rate everywhere in Africa. There is a wide disparity in the geographical distribution of endogenous transport electrification initiatives on the continent. Most of these initiatives are concentrated in South Africa and East Africa, with the trio of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda leading the way. West and North Africa are gradually opening up to this trend, while Central Africa seems to be lagging behind. Beyond this disparity, and contrary to the trends observed in the Global North (Europe and the United States in particular), where electrified transport is mainly driven by passenger vehicles and strongly supported by public policies, transport electrification initiatives in Africa are following a singular trajectory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n