Isuzu set to enter Kenya's electric vehicle market

Isuzu East Africa’s Managing Director and Chairperson, Rita Kavashe, said that one of the main concerns about offering electric vehicles is the short battery life associated with many electric automobiles.

“Our first electric vehicle will come to Kenya in 2025 – a truck – for testing with our customers, and we will collect data as we study what the market requires,” Ms Kavashe said in an interview.

“The battery life is our biggest challenge now, especially since these are commercial vehicles. We don’t want our customers to keep going back and forth charging these vehicles.”

Global automakers are investing heavily in developing electric vehicles in response to demand, as well as efforts to reduce pollution emanating from diesel-and petrol-powered engines.

These changes have started filtering through to the local market, where new vehicle dealers are expanding their offerings of electric vehicles produced by foreign manufacturers they represent under distributorship agreements.

CFAO Mobility Kenya recently started selling cars from Chinese firm BYD, which is one of the biggest producers of EVs in the world alongside Tesla, which is headquartered in the United States.

Simba Corp has also introduced electric models, including a Mahindra sports utility vehicle (SUV). There are also several independent EV start-ups in Kenya, including BasiGo and Roam, which are offering models primarily targeting the public transport market.

The transition to electric transportation is expected to take decades, partly due to infrastructure challenges such as inadequate charging stations and erratic electricity supply in most parts of the country.

Vehicles running on diesel and petrol continue to dominate sales in the Kenyan market, according to data from dealers in new and used vehicles.

Isuzu Motors Limited, which plans to mass-produce EVs from next year, says it will use the appropriate technology to address the transportation needs of different customers.

“For example, we are developing light-duty vehicles with battery-electric power sources, as they are mainly used over short distances,” the multinational says in its latest annual report.

“Heavy-duty vehicles, on the other hand, are being developed with fuel-cell power sources since fuel-cell batteries perform better in vehicles that carry heavy loads and travel long distances.”

Unlike battery-reliant models, fuel cell-powered vehicles use hydrogen and oxygen from the air to produce electricity through a chemical reaction in the fuel cell.

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