Electrical Automobile Electrical energy Consumption In Kenya Up 300% In 12 Months

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Kenya’s Power Regulator, EPRA, has simply launched its annual Power and Petroleum Statistics Report. The report covers the monetary 12 months that ended on the thirtieth of June 2025. Throughout that interval, the variety of registered electrical automobiles throughout all car segments rose to six,442. About 90% of those are electrical bikes. These are largely used within the motorbike taxi and final mile supply sectors. Motorbike taxis in East Africa are popularly referred to as boda bodas. Kenya is among the markets main the cost to impress this motorbike taxi sector, with a number of companies working to do the identical in quite a lot of distinguished motorbike taxi markets. 

The transfer in direction of electrical automobiles in Africa, particularly on this electrical motorbike sector, has primarily been pushed by the personal sector by small startup corporations. Many of the developments in Africa’s electrical motorbike sector have been concentrated alongside what’s now referred to as the “boda belt.” The boda belt, a time period coined by Tom Courtright, is a stretch of nations on the African map the place motorbike taxis have been distinguished through the years. This belt stretches from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. There may be additionally vital exercise in North African international locations resembling Morocco, the place smaller scooters are used primarily for private transportation, in contrast to in East Africa and West Africa, the place many of the exercise is for business transport functions.

In a bid to encourage adoption of electrical mobility, Kenya has carried out a particular electrical energy tariff for electrical automobiles that additionally incorporates a decrease off-peak tariff in comparison with commonplace business and residential tariffs. The e-mobility tariff is 16 Kenyan shillings for power consumption as much as 15,000 kWh throughout peak intervals and eight Kenyan shillings per kWh throughout off-peak intervals, additionally as much as 15,000 kWh. The 16 shillings is decrease than the final home tariff, which is 20.97 shillings per kWh for consumption above 100 kWh, and the small business tariff, which has been set at 20.18 shillings/kWh for consumption above 100 kWh. That is earlier than taxes and different expenses are added to the ultimate price the customers can pay. Stories from Kenya say that EPRA is engaged on eradicating that 15,000 kWh consumption cap for EVs (after which some demand expenses kick in). This may assist incentivize fleet operators resembling bus operators to go electrical as these hefty demand expenses will fall away. 

For the monetary 12 months that ended on the thirtieth of June 2025, EPRA reviews that electrical mobility consumption was 5.04 GWh, which is a whopping 300% improve from the earlier monetary 12 months’s consumption of 1.26 GWh. EPRA says this progress has been spurred by the elevated uptake of the e-mobility tariff. EPRA reviews that as of June 2025, there have been 69 prospects billed beneath the e-mobility tariff class. The precise consumption might be a lot increased as not all homeowners of electrical automobiles and operators of electrical mobility companies are related to good meters which might be on this mobility tariff. General, EPRA says the electrical energy provide sector skilled vital progress.  Annual electrical energy generated elevated from 13,684.60GWh in 2024 to 14,472 GWh. The height demand for electrical energy additionally elevated by 6.4% from 2,177 MW to 2,316 MW.

Put in electrical energy technology capability as of June 2025 was 3,840.8 MW comprising 3,192.0 MW of interconnected capability, 603.8 MW of captive capability, and 45.0 MW of off-grid capability. The beauty of Kenya’s power combine is that put in capability from renewable power sources accounts for 80.48% of Kenya’s whole put in capability. A complete of two,930.2 MW of the nation’s technology capability is from renewables. Distributed photo voltaic PV put in by business and industrial enterprises on their very own premises was additionally on the up. EPRA says within the interval beneath evaluate, captive photo voltaic PV vegetation cumulative put in capability reached 300.5 MW. Kenya has a goal of 100% of {the electrical} power generated from renewable power sources by 2030. The nation isn’t far off and it’s fairly doable to attain this.

On the utility-scale facet of issues, EPRA’s report says geothermal kinds the most important share of Kenya’s put in capability at 25.92%. Hydro and thermal rank second and third respectively, accounting for 23.97% and 17.22%. Photo voltaic PV programs accounts for 14.12%, whereas wind technology programs account for 11.98%. The photo voltaic PV share is kind of attention-grabbing and better than the regional common within the East African neighborhood the place the penetration of photo voltaic continues to be beneath 3%. 

One other problem that has been affecting Kenya’s electrical energy panorama is the difficulty of power curtailment. For the monetary 12 months that ended on the thirtieth of June 2025, EPRA reviews that power curtailment was decreased by 17.72% from 812.8 GWh curtailed within the earlier 12 months to 668.7 GWh within the 12 months ended June 2025. Nonetheless, 668.7 GWh is nearly 5% of the power generated throughout that interval. Many of the power curtailment occurs in a single day at geothermal vegetation. An excellent chunk of this may very well be higher utilized by way of in a single day charging of electrical automobiles.  Kenya’s demand for fossil fuels is now near $500 million per 30 days! That’s an enormous chunk of Kenya’s whole import invoice. At this tempo, in 12 months, Kenya could be spending $6 billion on fossil gas imports!

The continued reliance on fossil gas imports is among the predominant drivers of Kenya’s commerce deficit. That is maybe an ideal time to essentially catalyze the native electrical mobility sector and to begin to considerably cut back gas imports by substituting these imports with domestically generated renewable electrical energy to energy electrical automobiles.

EV penetration within the distinguished car segments, in 2024, simply over 7% of recent motorbike registrations had been electrical (as already talked about), adopted by 4% for electrical tuk tuks, 1.1% for electrical buses and minibuses, after which 0.18% for electrical vehicles. As you may see, electrical automobile adoption is lagging in an enormous manner. That’s as a result of the import obligation and taxes levied on electrical vehicles in Kenya are ridiculously excessive, particularly for a rustic that tries to advertise the inexperienced economic system. Electrical vehicles, vans, and buses, with their bigger battery packs (in comparison with smaller 2W and 3W packs) may actually assist take in extra of this curtailed power in addition to displace loads of petrol and diesel imports. General, it’s thrilling occasions in Kenya’s electrical car sector, and from what we’re listening to on the bottom, gross sales of electrical bikes are rising even quicker in 2025. We will likely be looking out for extra info on this.

Photographs by Remeredzai