A Swedish-Kenyan technology company, Opibus, has developed designs of a zero emissions public transportation system tailored for Africans.
The bus will be significantly lower cost than importing fully built electric buses and has a superior performance compared to its diesel counterpart.
Public Transport Project coordinator Dennis Wakaba stated they will deploy at least 10 buses during the second half of 2022.
“This first electric bus is set to be launched commercially mid this year. Following this, the platform will be tested at scale in commercial deployment of 10 buses during the second half of 2022. In doing so, we ensure that we gather valuable feedback to continue the development of the product for an optimised market fit. It feels great to be the first movers in this very exciting space,” Wakaba said.
The bus is designed and developed in-house with local engineering talent, while at the same time utilizing local manufacturing partners
With the installation of a powerful motor, the bus has maximum torque which improves performance while enabling the driver to accelerate more responsively.
Additionally, since the electric bus does not have a combustion engine or manual gearboxes, there are no oil/filters/gaskets that need to be changed. This translates to an 80 per cent reduction in maintenance expenses, compared to a diesel bus.
The deployment of the buses will initially be in peri-urban areas around Nairobi Metropolitan, paired with a business model that enables operators to save from day one.
Along with the bus deployment, several charging points will be installed from Opibus’ already existing range of products.
These chargers will be a mix of AC (slow) and DC (fast) chargers, using the fast charger, the electric bus will be fully charged within an hour enabling seamless operations.
