THE President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is planning on tackling pollution by providing certain riders with a completely free electric motorcycle.
President Museveni has said that an agreement with investors has been reached and that all riders, including the region’s 100,000+ Boda-Boda riders. These are the self-employed motorcycle taxis, that transport people across the city of Kampala, usually on old, polluting single-cylinder motorcycles. The system will be a trade-in and will see riders swapping their current petrol bike for a new fully electric motorcycle.
The swap is said to reduce the cost incurred by operators by up to 60 percent, and the government is installing a network of charging stations across the country to support the move. Another plus of the scheme is that the new owners of the bikes won’t actually own the complete machine. The most expensive to produce (and replace) part of the bike, the battery, will remain the property of Bodawerk International Limited and Zembo, two of the investors behind the scheme. The new owners of the bikes will be leasing the battery for the bike, meaning after its working life is finished, they can return it, where it can be recycled, and replace it with a fresh battery.
The bike is based on the Bajaj Boxer, and looking at the Bodawerk website there are two models available, the E-BODA Commuter, and the E-BODA Work. The Commuter has a single gear and can provide up to 100km of range with a 150kg load capacity, while the Work model has a 4-speed transmission and can provide up to 100km of range with a 250kg load capacity.
With around 70 percent of East Africa’s transport being handled by lightweight small-capacity bikes, the scheme looks set to remove many of those machines from the region’s roads.
