Viateur Ngarambe has been driving an electric taxi motor-cycle for two years in Kigali. He had been riding a fuel taxi moto for six years before he transitioned, cutting operational cost by half.

“It is very quiet riding on an electric motorcycle, no clutches or gears and it is relatively comfortable and less costly,” Mr Ngarambe describes his experience driving a taxi motorcycle in Kigali, a city where 52 percent of vehicles in the roads are taxi motos.

Although Ngarambe has never regretted transitioning, he admits that he still faces challenges where passengers prefer fuel taxi motorcycles over electric ones.

“Not only passengers but also riders do not believe electric motorcycles are reliable. They reason that electricity is not reliable and that there are only a few charging stations in Kigali,” he explains. Mr Ngarambe needs a charging station twice a day and has two batteries to change.

Currently, the purchase price of e-motos is higher than fuel motos, but e-motos are cheaper to operatebut life-cycle costing shows that commercial e-motos operating on average between 170- and 190 kilometres per day will be able to negate the high cost of the battery with the savings in maintenance and operating costs. Since 2019, the government has been encouraging electric mobility in move to act against climate change.

President Paul Kagame announced in August 2019 his intention to replace internal fuel motos with e-motos during “Meet the President” event with the youth. On November, 28, 2019, the Ministry of Infrastructure briefed the Rwandan Cabinet about its initiative to promote e-mobility and on April 19, 2021, the Cabinet meeting approved an e-mobility adaptation policy.

However, experts say the expansion of e-vehicles will reduce government fuel tax revenues by up to $6 million by 2025.

The government is recommended to increase transport capacity. Despite the efforts to ease the transition to open different charging stations across Kigali, companies involved in electric cars and motorcycles call for more public sensitization as they face challenges with transitioning from fuzzy fuel to electric mobility.