E-Volution: Why electric mobility is an opportunity in Africa

September 16, 2024

The growing public health crisis associated with polluted air and rising carbon emissions due to growing economy and motorisation represents a difficult phase in the environmental risk transition in Africa. The imperatives of electric mobility needs to be understood within this context.

Even though these are the early stages of growth and motorisation in Africa, technology lag in combustion technologies across all sectors including vehicles, has increased health threatening emissions significantly. With heavy reliance on imported used vehicles, African countries experienceone of the highest exposures to vehicular pollution.

Countries in East, West, Central, and Southern Africa experience the largest burden of disease linked to air pollution. Nigeria with 206,700 deaths, and Egypt with 116,500 deaths, bear the highest death burden globally, according to the State of Global Air 2024.

With growing urban centres and development work in several African countries, energy demand is on a high. According to one estimate, transportation accounts for 10 per cent of Africa’s total GHG emissions, and thisis expected to rise. Africa therefore requires a co-benefit framework that will enable quicker co-control of both local emissions and greenhouse gas emissions from pollution sources. Electric mobility is a way forward.

According to one estimate, transportation accounts for 10 per cent of Africa’s total GHG emissions, and this is expected to rise. Africa cannot fall behind in this transition.

Though there has been substantial progress in moving towards 50 ppm sulphur fuel in several countries, it is not yet clear how soon regional harmonisation will take place across Africa to meet the 10 ppm sulphur fuel benchmark needed forthe introduction of Euro VI compliant vehicles.The only way to leapfrog and sidestep the sluggish ICE pathway is to make a paradigm shift to embrace electric mobility.

The relatively simple technology behind the electric vehicle powertrain, motor technology, battery packs and related assembly processes, particularly in the small vehicle segments, has already opened up this opportunity in this region.

It is from this perspective that this report puts a spotlight on the electric mobility pathways in Africa to understand the local opportunities and imperatives, and tap the learning curve from other developing countries with a sizeable electric vehicle fleet like India, to inform the regulatory process.

It is important to note that an early transition to electric mobility is essential in viewof the fact that the developed markets in the North including the US, European Union and China have begun to set targets to phase out ICE vehicles within the timeframe of 2030 to 2035. If local action is not ramped up, the Africa market will remain locked into polluting ICE technologies to be dumped from the rest of the world for a considerably long time.