Kenya power has unveiled plans to roll out electric vehicle charging points.
Kenya Power has been venturing into different business ventures in an attempt to increase their revenue streams their new investment is in the electric car industry where they plan to build a nationwide network of public charging points.
Currently Kenyans who own electric cars struggle to charge their cars as majority of Kenyans still own non electric cars.
Kenya promotes electric vehicles.
Electric cars in general are considered expensive and hard to maintain especially on our roads and because the struggle to find the spare parts can be quite a challenge. However, the worldwide push for Kenya to use electric vehicles is there especially since fuel products are the country’s biggest import item.
Kenya Power Managing director Bernard Ngugi said:
“As part of our implementation plan, we are developing appropriate infrastructure and building internal capacity to enable us to support the use of electric vehicles across the value chain,”
“To this end, we plan to set up charging facilities across the country beginning with Nairobi to support direct charging of vehicles,” added Mr Ngugi without giving timeliness.
Where will the charging ports be?
Along with the super highways that currently exist Kenya Power will set their charging ports on the major highways, parking lots and malls. Currently Kenya Power is not the only company eyeing this investment but they are joining KenGen who recently announced that they will be investing in electric charging system.
This is quite a unique investment considering a number of Kenyans don’t own electric cars but maybe this may change if the charging ports will be readily accessible.
Other continents like Europe and US have been working on getting rid of carbon emission by using electric vehicles. In African countries a large number of people are still living below the minimum wage and for the people who can afford electric cars they might just prefer a range rover for the size and it would probably be flashier than a small electric car worth KSh 6 million.
How long does it take to charge an electric car?
An electric vehicle runs on the power stored in batteries. The batteries take about an hour to fully charge and can drive for up to 250 kilometres. So far three charging ports exist in the following locations the Two Rivers Mall, the Hub Karen and Thika Road Mall.
Excise duty on the cars is usually 20% but in an attempt to encourage people to buy the electric cars Kenya has reduced it to 10%. With all this been said and done, would you buy yourself an electric car?
