A 2017 research project at Sweden’s Linköping University (think Scandinavian MIT) sought to identify where electric mobility could make the largest impact. Students Filip Gardler, Mikael Gånge and Filip Lövström settled on Kenya, the fastest-growing nation in sub-Saharan Africa, as their rising economy was bringing with it an appetite for importing used vehicles. And some 90% of the electricity produced in Kenya comes from renewable sources.
Which raises the question: Just as citizens in some developing nations had cell phones as their first phones, would it be possible for an electric vehicle to be someone’s first?
The trio formed a startup, initially called Opibus but now called Roam, headquartered in Nairobi and hiring from the local populace. They started by convincing safari tour operators to let Roam convert their buses to electric. Initially expensive, the conversions would pay for themselves over time with reduced maintenance and no fuel fees, and the appeal of…
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