However there are some indicators of progress. I simply completed up a narrative concerning the financial case: A latest examine in Nature Power discovered that EVs from scooters to minibuses might be cheaper to personal than gas-powered automobiles in Africa by 2040.
If there’s one factor to learn about EVs in Africa, it’s that every of the 54 international locations on the continent faces drastically totally different wants, challenges, and circumstances. There’s additionally a variety of causes to be optimistic concerning the prospects for EVs within the close to future, together with creating insurance policies, a rising grid, and an growth of native manufacturing.
Even the world’s main EV markets fall wanting Ethiopia’s aggressively pro-EV insurance policies. In 2024, the nation turned the primary on the earth to ban the import of non-electric non-public automobiles.
The case is essentially an financial one: Gasoline is pricey there, and the nation commissioned Africa’s largest hydropower dam in September 2025, offering a brand new supply of low cost and considerable clear electrical energy. The almost $5 billion venture has a five-gigawatt capability, doubling the grid’s peak energy within the nation.
A lot of Ethiopia’s car market is for used automobiles, and a few drivers are nonetheless choosing older gas-powered automobiles. However this nudge may assist improve the marketplace for EVs there.
Different African international locations are additionally pushing some drivers towards electrification. Rwanda banned new registrations for industrial gas-powered motorbikes within the capital metropolis of Kigali final yr, encouraging EVs as a substitute. These motorcycle taxis could make up over half the automobiles on the town’s streets, so the transfer is a significant turning level for transportation there.
Smaller two- and three-wheelers are a vivid spot for EVs globally: In 2025, EVs made up about 45% of recent gross sales for such automobiles. (For automobiles and vans, the share was about 25%.)
