As electric vehicles (EVs) become more common on roads in African countries, the need for reliable service is also growing with forward thinkers already positioning themselves for the opportunity the e-mobility shift offers.
In this episode of The Africa EV Show, host Njenga Hakeenah sits down with Alex Mũnene, Founder and fleet mobility expert at Advanced Mobility Kenya, to explore how training programs are shaping the continent’s electric vehicle shift. From driver and mechanic training to policy and investment lessons from Rwanda, Ethiopia, and the DRC, this episode dives deep into how skills development, education, and hands-on programs are preparing Africa for the electric future.
Mũnene, who organized Kenya’s first EV driver and technical training, shares on-the-ground insights on several issues including:
Chapters:
- Introduction: The critical role of EV training and education
- Challenges: The biggest challenges for mechanics transitioning from ICE to EVs
- Partnerships: The growing role of private sector and partnerships in e-mobility training
- New EV Owners: What new EV owners need to know before hitting the road
- Lessons for Kenya: Why Rwanda and Ethiopia are ahead — and what Kenya can learn
Show Notes:
- China Global South Project: Interview: Kenyan Converting Old Cars Into EVs With Chinese Tech by Njenga Hakeenah
- China Global South Project: Local Assembly & Chinese EVs Powering Kenya’s Electric Vehicle Shift by Njenga Hakeenah
- China Global South Project: How Chinese EV Makers Are Building a Lead in African Countries by Njenga Hakeenah
About Alex Mũnene:
Alex Munene is a pioneering force at the Advanced Mobility Centre based in Nairobi, Kenya. As Founder and Fleet Mobility Expert, he spearheads a center renowned for its expertise in electric mobility capacity building, fleet management consulting, and advanced driver training. Outside of his professional endeavors, Alex is an avid enthusiast of outdoor pursuits, including jogging, hiking, and cycling. He has climbed both Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest and second-highest peaks, respectively. He is also involved in local charitable initiatives and leadership roles.
Transcript:
NJENGA HAKEENAH: Hello and welcome to the Africa EV show, your go-to podcast on e-mobility in Africa. I am your host Njenga Hakeenah, and from the latest innovations in EV technology accessible in many different African countries to the critical role of training and education to make this tech serve the communities, this is the podcast where we spark conversations on Africa’s green mobility advances. In this episode, we are zooming in on Kenya and some other African countries where our guest has been to explore how training programs for mechanics, new EV owners, and even awareness creation regarding the general EV sector are shaping the future of transportation.
How do we equip the next generation of technicians to service EVs? What do new EV owners need to know to get the most out of their vehicles? And how is Kenya leading the charge in building a skilled workforce for the electric future?
Where else on the African continent is this happening? Whether you are an EV enthusiast, a mechanic looking to upskill, or just curious about the future of transport in Kenya and some other African countries, this is just the episode for you. Today I am joined by Alex Mũnene, the founder and fleet mobility expert at Advanced Mobility in Nairobi, Kenya.
Advanced Mobility helps fleet operators to lower their costs and adopt affordable e-mobility solutions. Monene is the one who organized the first EV driver training and e-mobility technical training programs in Kenya. He is working with many e-mobility organizations including BasiGo, Rome Electric, AfricaNEV, or Africanev and is also a part-time facilitator at the Strathmore Business School in Nairobi.
Hello Mũnene and welcome to the Africa EV show.
ALEX MŨNENE: Thank you so much Njenga. It’s been a minute and as always a pleasure to discuss matters e-mobility and to engage on how we can be able to spread the gospel across Africa.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: It is a great opportunity to have you today. It’s raining in Nairobi, but you have been visiting some countries in East Africa. You’ve been to Ethiopia, you have been to the DRC, I think you have been to Uganda and definitely Rwanda.
There is no one who is in the EV space who will not go to Rwanda first because they are doing amazing things, right?
ALEX MŨNENE: Yeah, I’ve been to all those countries except Uganda, not yet Uganda, but I have been to the e-mobility hubs of Ethiopia and Rwanda. Those are the key ones in our region. Also, I did a short visit to DRC just to understand the transport and logistic aspects in that country.
We’ve also done some work in Tanzania. Tanzania is a big country for one of our partners who was to launch a product on e-mobility. So yeah, we have a good feel of where the market is headed in our region.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: Ah, nice. That’s very good because when you travel, you see the perspectives and it is better than the stories you read or what you hear. When you experience it, it lasts and it stays with you.
ALEX MŨNENE: Definitely. And like Kenyans, we say things on the ground can be different from the media reports and everything. So it helps to get that perspective and actually speak to users on the ground and understand their perspective.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: You organized the first EV driver and e-mobility technical training program in Kenya. What led you to do this and why is it important?
ALEX MŨNENE: So how that happened is that initially we were partnering with PASICO to do driver training. So that’s how we did the first EV driver training in Kenya. And later, one of our partners, African EV, was trying to put together technical training.
And we partnered with them because we had already done some e-mobility trainings in Nairobi and were able to help them execute quite well that series of training. And we’ve been able to grow from there and do trainings across the region and including different consulting assignments as well on matters in mobility.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: All right. And what training programs currently exist for mechanics to transition from working on internal combustion engine vehicles to EVs?
ALEX MŨNENE: Okay, I’ll separate probably the mechanics who are already in the field or in the market versus those in school. So anyone in school has a bit of an easier time because the curriculum is being changed to incorporate mobility. So like divots are in the process of upgrading their curriculum through the National Electric Training Authority to incorporate electric mobility with support of partners like GIZ.
Universities have started the process slowly, much slower of integrating e-mobility. So anyone in university needs to do a bit more of self-learning because the curriculum will take a bit of a while before it’s formalized. But the ones already in the field probably have the bigger challenge because they will not have the opportunity to do long courses or even the resources to go back to training.
So for them, I think they have to look for short professional courses like what advanceability and some of our partnerships we’re trying to put together so that they just understand where this technology is moving. Coincidentally, even as we’re having this discussion, in two days time we’ll be having two days of free technical training in partnership with Kabisa because we just completed the Road to Addis project, which we had a full electric convoy of vehicles drive the whole 3,200 kilometers from Nairobi to Addis and back. And we’ll be giving an explanation of that journey and incorporating some technical training on the vehicles that were involved in that convoy.
So to answer your question, the opportunities are limited, but we hope that they will grow, especially for people already in the market.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: Okay. All right. And when we talk about, because what I am sharing is some of the activities that you have been having whereby you are training these mechanics.
But what are the biggest challenges that mechanics in Kenya face when they have to, you know, they have to learn how to repair and maintain EVs coming from a background of fully ICE vehicles?
ALEX MŨNENE: So I think the biggest challenge is just getting access to the right information about this new technology. I’ve been in the automotive space for about two decades now. And I can tell you that most of the EVs coming right now are from China.
And we are seeing a big difference in the way China sells vehicles to the way Europeans or the Japanese sell vehicles. And the European and the Japanese are very structured. They have very dedicated rollout programs, path support programs, training programs for their dealers and distributors of their products.
Compare that with the Chinese who are more, you know, go to market commercial kind of people. So you have, let’s just go to the beginning. China has over 100, between 100 and 200 EV OEMs producing EVs.
And they have many more distributors of their products. So it’s very likely that some of the products being distributed in African markets are being sold by, you know, trade representative, not actually the actual OEM. So what that means is access to product manuals, to training, to path supply chain is somewhat limited because when you’re dealing with traders, then you find they have a bit more, you know, they are more distant compared to the OEM.
They have less resources. They have a short term view. So they don’t see the market in terms of investing in training and other resources the way an OEM would.
So what that means is access to technical information about these models is much harder to come across. And for some models, even after sales support in terms of paths becomes a bit of a challenge. So those are some of the challenges that we are seeing that even if someone is keen to learn, then the information is not so easily available compared to the way that this has been.
But lastly, I think is also the aspect that e-mobility is new. The ice industry has had, what, probably over 100 years of development of their after sales support system. And the EV industry is just beginning.
And even as it’s doing that, there’s so many changes in terms of the models, the prototypes, the battery chemistries. So by the time you learn one thing, you know, a lot of aspects of that product have changed. So that means someone is in a continuous loop of learning before we reach what we can call a plateau that now the products have settled in the market.
So those are some of the challenges that I would say a modern day mechanic would face while trying to get into this space.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: Okay. And the pictures that we are seeing now are some of the participants. Actually, that is Turai Sewera.
He is one of the certified trainers who’s been to one of your training events that I have attended. And do we have enough of these certified trainers? And are institutions offering specialized EV mechanic training in Kenya?
And if not, what needs to change?
ALEX MŨNENE: Well, we don’t have enough. I mean, I think Turai is one of a kind, probably the only one in Africa with this kind of certifications. He is a certified master.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: And to point out that he’s not Kenyan. Sorry, you can continue.
ALEX MŨNENE: He’s from Zimbabwe. So I’ve been to his workshop in Harare. He’s a certified master EV technician of 39 certifications from the US.
And it’s cost him many years and a pile of money to get to that level. He needs to go to the US about once a year to recertify, to revalidate his certification. So that’s the level of commitment and resources required.
And this is not available to the average mechanic in an African setting. So I think right now what we are offering, so we’ve used Turai several, five times has been to Nairobi five times. We’ve trained over 220 people in a very high level four wheel electric driver, I mean, technical training.
And we are glad to say that some of the participants have come from diverse organizations like Kenya Power, Safari Com, AA, different mobility companies, Rome, Basico, and KDF. And we’re looking to grow this. The challenge of course now is the cost of bringing such a highly specialized, highly skilled person.
The training program is not very easily affordable. You find it’s 40,000 plus VAT for one week training. So what you’ve seen in the market, there’s a big desire for access to this knowledge.
Now the only thing we’re trying to rationalize is the cost. So our approach as advancability is to offer a lot of the introductory or baseline training at a more affordable cost, even as we try and develop people to go to the higher levels. And our goal is actually to be able, within the next 10 years, we can have a master EV technician from Kenya.
We shall be some of the happiest people in the land to have someone similar, even close to what Turai had been able to achieve.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: You’re talking over 10 years, man, 10 years. Yes, yes.
ALEX MŨNENE: A decade. Because those certifications take time and a lot of money. So you need to pay your way to some of the countries or markets where there’s a structured way of learning and it’s not cheap.
Let’s start from there. And so for you to do all the programs to get to a master technician level, it will take you a number of years to do that. So if that can happen, if it happens earlier, we’ll be happy.
But we want to be realistic. And also looking at the market, how many master EV technicians do we need? We probably need more baseline, you know, foundation level training on a large scale, compared to, you know, the very specialized training.
And normally, if you do enough of the foundation training, eventually some people will start rising to the top and we will get opportunities to do the higher level training. So for us, we are not worried about the top, we are worried about this base of the pyramid, which will be able to help us grow the master EV technician.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: Okay. And when we are looking at these trainings, what government or private sector initiatives are supporting them? You have mentioned Basigo, you have mentioned other stakeholders that you’re working with.
Yeah, so you can just probably get into detail of how this support happens.
ALEX MŨNENE: So most of the training activities actually private sector led. So it’s industry initiatives, you know, various immobility firms trying to grow their capacity, and the network around them, partnering with us to be able to develop programs. So for example, we have a four-wheeler program, we’ve also just rolled out a electric two-wheeler program.
So most of it is private sector led. Government is also getting lots of support from development partners in our market and in many markets. GIZ is the front runner in supporting, you know, government to government programs to enable immobility.
So this is through enabling access to, you know, training opportunities to conferences, sponsoring some programs themselves. And for government itself, what we’re seeing is the initiative I already mentioned about the TVET curriculum, because immobility is a very practical skill. And the TVET side, at least we are seeing a curriculum being finalized on immobility.
What we are yet to see is on the university side, them adapting their curriculum, especially if you’re doing automotive or mechanical engineering courses, to have an aspect of electric mobility. But knowing the university model, it normally takes longer to develop the curriculum. So for us, our only concern is by the time they develop and certify it, half or a quarter of it will be outdated because immobility is changing so fast that whatever you learned this year, by next year, probably 10% of it is already obsolete.
Something else has replaced it. Yeah, but we are seeing government providing support mainly in terms of the curriculum side. What we would request is probably get support in terms of equipment at a lower cost or duty free.
For example, if someone is setting up a learning center, so that we’re able to get more people aware. And also just put requirements if people are bringing electric vehicles, that capacity building should be one of their requirements, not just capital to set up factories and assembly. They should be able to prove what are they doing to enable local knowledge transfer to Kenyan engineers, technicians, mechanics, and other people in the after-sale value chain.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: All right. And you’ve mentioned something that I found it interesting in that GIZ, that is the German Institute for Development, I think, that works with the government, with governments, is the one that is kind of facilitating these trainings largely. I find it odd that the Chinese suppliers are not in that space.
Or is it me who missed that?
ALEX MŨNENE: They are totally not in that space. Almost entirely. Because I said some of the challenges that most of them are actually just beginning to export outside of China.
And because Africa is one of the smaller markets, you find that the farms which are selling EVs in Kenya are more appointed agents or traders. So they don’t have the resources or the long-term view of an OEM. So that’s where the challenge is coming in.
That it’s a small market, so it does not probably justify commercially you to invest longer time in things like training, putting resources. But what we’ve seen is players like Kabisa, we are partnering with them to roll out training for their dealer network, for their service network. But this is now an initiative of Kabisa locally, because Kabisa is a multi-brand distributor of different electric vehicles.
Yeah.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: Okay. And Kabisa is from Rwanda, but now they have what we call a subsidiary in Kenya, right?
ALEX MŨNENE: Yes, they first launched in Rwanda. So they have now a full subsidiary, we could call it, also now running in Kenya. And that just shows you how policy can make a difference.
Because many mobility firms have skipped Kenya and landed in Rwanda because of their predictable and attractive environment for immobility. So what do I mean attractive? There’s all kinds of incentives, both on the tax side and on the power side to get into immobility, but also it’s predictable.
Because for example, Rwanda has a policy that the incentives they have now will be in place until 2028. So it means that you can make mid-term to long-term plans based on the current laws. Compared to Kenya where every finance bill, you know, everyone is on the edge because you don’t know which tax or which levy will go up or down.
So it’s like half of the time you’re working, half of the time you’re lobbying to make sure you don’t lose the benefits of whatever incentives or to make them better. So those are some of the differences that we have seen in the different markets. Just to emphasize that good policy attracts, you know, the right investments without much hassle.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: I think that anyway, I think in my mind, I have many things going on. And I think having an economist as a president makes a lot more sense. But anyway, let’s move on to for new EV owners, what kind of training orientation do these new owners receive when they purchase their first electric vehicles?
ALEX MŨNENE: So for the new EV owners, I think right now we are still in the early adopter phase. Anyone buying an EV right now is more bold, if I can use that word. So it means they’ve already overcome the biases of the, you know, half-truths about EVs and they are willing to try them out.
So for them, we find that when someone is buying an EV, they normally ask themselves two main questions. Number one is, where will I charge the vehicle? And where will I have it fixed in case there’s an issue?
So the first one is a bit easier to answer because you can make your own arrangements. For example, you can install a charger at home, probably a one or what you call a level two charger at home and at work. So that makes it much easier.
And then you can also now complement with public charging, which is starting to grow not just around Nairobi, but along our highways, especially Nairobi going to the Northern Corridor, you’re finding more and more chargers coming up. The maintenance one is the one which does not have a clear answer. Because like I said, even the distributors are still handling some products for the first time.
Some of them are third parties to the manufacturers. So they don’t have the full technical access to, for example, the software or certain spare parts. So that becomes a bit more, you know, tricky question for the vehicle owner to answer.
But we would like to say that the important thing is just to understand your use case.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: So Alex, what are the most common mistakes that new EV owners make? And how can these training programs help?
ALEX MŨNENE: I’ll say some of the common mistakes, including not selecting the right vehicle for their use, what you call their use case. You find probably someone covers very long distance where there’s an issue with charging or with the range of the vehicle. So when selecting a vehicle, you need to know whether the range meets your normal usage or most of your normal usage.
But statistics tell us that most people less than 75 kilometers daily. So it means most vehicles are suitable for daily use, except when you need a trip outside town. Second thing is the charging style.
We know that for you to maintain the battery for long, we recommend use the slower charging that helps to, you know, maximize the cycles of the battery. But you find some people have access to fast charging, what we call DC charging, which is very convenient because it’s very fast. It probably takes an hour compared to the other one for a small vehicle, which would take maybe five, six hours.
But now the fast charging, you know, is not very good for the health of the battery. So that’s another mistake where people tend to make. Also just the regular checks of an EV, daily inspection, just like a nice vehicle.
And for the EV, the cooling system is one of the most important because you need an optimum temperature for both the traction motor and the traction battery. So if you don’t check the cooling system, the coolant that is working well and flowing well, then you start to affect the performance of the motor and the battery, which will reduce the way they work. And in the case of the battery, which gets out of hand, now you get into the territory where there’s a high risk of a fire, of an EV fire.
And you know, those can be famous. So we’re not going to the chemistry of how the fire happens, but it normally starts by high temperature, which is unregulated, which leads to a faster chemical reaction, faster, higher temperature until you get a phenomenon called thermal runaway. At that point, it is very difficult to put out that fire.
The other one we’ve seen probably, especially with hybrids, is that because of the cooling system, the battery normally has some vents in hybrids. They don’t have liquid cooling, so they use air cooling. So there are normally some air vents below the rear seat.
And most people don’t check to confirm that the air is circulating well, and that heat now affects the quality of the battery. So those are some of the things I’d say top of mind that affects, that most EV owners would make when they’re acquiring an electric vehicle.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: All right. And now we have more EVs in Kenya than we had last month, and the month before, and the year before. So how are these trainings evolving to meet this growing demand for EV expertise?
Because I believe the more vehicles we get, the more need for knowledgeable and skilled mechanics and other technicians.
ALEX MŨNENE: So I think for the EV owners, they don’t require too much training. And most EV sellers are able to offer a simple training at the point of delivery. What we find for the mechanics is there’s a big need for training, because with EV maintenance, it’s moving more less mechanical work and more electrical and IT kind of work.
So the current EVs, if you don’t have the right tools, you can’t even start diagnosing them. It’s not just hammers and spanners. You need to have the right diagnostic tools, because you’re basically communicating with the computer to be able to know what information it’s giving you as far as the battery, the error codes, and any other issue with that vehicle.
You need to understand more about the electrical systems, because now you’re dealing with high voltage. Anything above 50 volts is high voltage, and a small car will be 300 volts, buses are 400 to 600 upwards. Now we even have 800 volt architecture.
So you need to understand the electrical side, because that’s the high risk part of an EV, especially when you’re a technician. So yeah, that learning needs to happen quickly for the current mechanics and technicians to be able to be useful for fixing electric vehicles.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: And now you have been to the DRC, you have been to Rwanda, you have been to Ethiopia, and Rwanda and Ethiopia are becoming the classic case or benchmarks on how African countries can adopt e-mobility. Briefly, what are the differences between these three countries and what is happening in Kenya? So you can just share a bit about what is positive happening in Ethiopia and Rwanda, and then what can Kenya and the DRC learn from these two countries?
ALEX MŨNENE: So starting with Kenya, before I go out, is that our e-mobility push is mainly private sector driven, because we have over 40 e-mobility firms doing all different kinds of work, from two-wheeler, three-wheeler, charging solutions, and capacitating advanced mobility. So Kenya is a very good environment for doing business. It’s a free market enterprise, so that is very attractive.
But on the government side, we find it’s moving a bit slowly in terms of having clear incentives and a long-term vision. By long-term, I mean policies that are not changing year on year, that every time the finance bill is being read, you need to be on edge because your whole business model could be disrupted. In Rwanda and Ethiopia, they are strongly government-led initiatives, which makes a very big difference because you find government controls the incentives for getting e-mobility.
So both governments have removed taxes and duties on electric vehicles, so you have many more electric vehicles. In Rwanda, for example, which is a much smaller country than in Kenya, that’s a bit unfortunate. We hope to catch up with them.
And same for Ethiopia. They actually did an outside ban. Last year, they banned private vehicles.
You can’t import a passenger vehicle which is not electric. And by next year, they are going to be banning trucks. I mean, this year, they banned trucks and buses as well.
So you can see it’s not really a democracy. They give a direction and everyone has to follow, but it’s working for them. They have thousands of EVs.
They say 100,000, but my estimate is probably about half that. It’s actually numbers that you can see on the street. And with Rwanda, again, the difference is the incentives.
They are predictable that whatever incentives they have now will run up to 2028. So even an investor can be able to plan and know that the policy is reliable, not one which could change depending on who is a finance minister or who is a president, as is the case for Kenya. Now, for DRT, the story is much more complicated because of the nature of government or lack of it.
You barely even have new vehicle dealers in the market. So almost all vehicles are secondhand imported into the country. So even the immobility discussion is yet to catch up.
The few EVs you will see in Goma, for example, are just hybrids coming through Tanzania and Kenya. Now, the challenge is DRC has many resources like lithium and cobalt, which are used in EV battery production. But now because the country is not stable, so that becomes a big challenge.
Ethiopia has the same resources. And now just recently, after the African Mobility Week, they announced that they will not just be exporting lithium and cobalt. They want to start processing.
So we would like to see how that will happen because EV battery production is a very expensive setup. And it’s very specialized technology. So they definitely need to partner someone from China and see if they can be able to get justifiable investments and a good market for whatever they’ll be producing.
So those are some of the differences that we are seeing. On the two-wheeler space, I think Kenya is doing very well because the electric two-wheelers are already cost-effective compared to the engine ones, even right from purchase. But as you go higher sizes of vehicles, the purchase side becomes bigger.
So the cost difference becomes bigger. But all indications are just like phones, battery prices keep coming down year on year. And the performance keeps improving.
So with every year, like you said, every month or every year, we have more vehicles than we had last month. But the challenge is that the Kenyan numbers are growing very slowly compared to our counterparts in Rwanda. And we can’t even talk about Ethiopia.
Addis is just full of electric vehicles. Even the taxis are becoming electric. So in Addis, you’ll see all kinds of models.
Teslas, BYDs, Jags, Geelys. It’s not even something to take a picture. It’s that common.
But in Kenya, if you see a Tesla, you know, it is a bit out of place and everyone notices that it’s passing. So we hope to catch up with our neighbors.
NJENGA HAKEENAH: Definitely. And I think it all rises and falls on policy. In Kenya, we are too political.
Everything has to be politicized. And who benefits from this politics? And of course, we know that there are vested interests in Kenya’s mobility, especially when it comes to secondhand vehicles.
We know that is a market that many would not want touched because, well, that is where their bread is buttered. Thank you so much, Alex.
OUTRO: And that’s a wrap of another episode of the Africa EV show.
We’ve taken a deep dive into Kenya’s electrifying EV space. And we’ve also looked at Ethiopia, Rwanda, and a little bit of the DRC in Goma. We’ve also explored the critical role of training for mechanics and shared insights on how to equip new EV owners to run their vehicles without hitches.
A huge thank you to our very incredible guest, Alex Mũnene, for shedding light on how Kenya and a few other African countries are driving the African green mobility shift through education and skill building. And to you, our listeners, for joining us on the show. Remember, the road to a sustainable future isn’t just about the vehicles, it’s about the people who build, maintain, and drive them.
So whether you are a mechanic, an EV owner, or simply an advocate for cleaner transport, your role matters. Let’s keep the conversation going and the wheels turning. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe as well as leaving us a review.
This way, our show remains relevant to keep you updated on such things as are happening with advanced mobility in Kenya. Head over to our website www.chinaglobalsouth.com for more of our content including research and analysis on various topics on China in the Global South. Remember, whatever you see happening in your country and is worth a mention, drop that in the comments below and we’ll be sure to get in touch with you and share your story.
Until next time, goodbye.
