Ethiopia’s internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles ban has seen increasingly more electric vehicle brands in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, not only for personal cars but also for ride-hailing, mass movement of people, and transportation of goods. Ethiopia’s ICE vehicle import ban is one of Africa’s most aggressive stances on electric vehicles, including reducing EV taxes, and setting an ambitious target of 500,000 EVs by 2030. At the center of this transformation are Chinese automakers, local assembly plants, and a growing network of charging infrastructure.
While the transition hasn’t been smooth for everyone due to high upfront costs, spare parts shortages, and resale uncertainties, Ethiopia’s EV revolution serves as a case study for countries seeking to transition their vehicles from ICE to electric.
Show Notes:
- CGTN: Ethiopia targets 500,000 electric vehicles by 2030 by Girum Chala
- VOA: Ethiopia bans imports of gas-powered private vehicles, but switch to electric is bumpy ride by Associated Press
- Fana MC: Electric car assembly plant to go operational in 3 months
About Sarah Assefa:
Sarah Assefa is a freelance journalist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Since 2020, she has written several pieces on electric mobility, the environment, climate change, and food, with her byline appearing in various publications. She writes on food and transportation worldwide, and when she’s not writing, you’ll find her in the kitchen baking or spending time with friends and family.
Transcript:
Njenga Hakeenah: Hello, and welcome to this week’s episode of The Africa EV Show with me Njenga Hakeenah. It is always a pleasure having you join us for conversations on electric vehicle adoption across different African countries.
This week in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, there are increasingly more Chinese electric brands, not only for personal cars, but also for ride hailing, and also mass movement of people, and transportation of goods. Ethiopia has taken one of Africa’s most aggressive stances on electric vehicles, banning the import of gas-powered cars, slashing EV taxes, and setting an ambitious target of half a million EVs by the year 2030. And at the center of this transformation, Chinese automakers, local assembly plants, and a growing charging infrastructure network.
But the transition hasn’t been smooth for everyone. There are high upfront costs, there are spare parts shortages, and resale uncertainties have left some buyers hesitant. So is Ethiopia’s EV revolution on track, and who is driving it? Today we explore how Chinese EV imports and investments in local assembly are reshaping Ethiopia’s auto industry.
And we are going to explore how Chinese EV imports and investments are changing this country for people and for the infrastructure, including roads, fuel stations, electricity, and things like that. We also examine whether this ambitious shift can reduce the country’s reliance on costly fuel imports.
So to discuss this, I am joined by Sarah Assefa, a journalist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. And since 2020, she has written several pieces on electric mobility, the environment, climate change, and food with her byline appearing in various publications. She writes on food and transportation across the world and when she’s not writing, you’ll find her in the kitchen baking or spending time with friends and family. Welcome to the show, Sarah.
Sarah Assefa: Thank you. Hello Njenga, how are you doing? Thank you so much for having me today. Same case.
Njenga Hakeenah: Alright I think we’ll just get into this conversation and we are looking at Chinese EV imports and market growth in Ethiopia and you guys have seen a surge in Chinese EV imports over the past few years there is the policy that I’ve just mentioned how is this and you know the import market impacting the industry or the sector in Ethiopia?
Sarah Assefa: Okay Njenga yeah so as you mentioned in your introduction in February 2024 there was a complete ban on the importation of fossil fuel cars vehicles so that definitely like drove up the demand and supply of electric vehicles and naturally you know Ethiopia and like Ethiopia already had like a lot of projects with China a lot of business people in Ethiopia do travel to China to import cars like into the country anyway so and then also like China is a leading player in this sector like globally as well so I think that’s like what caused the fact that like most of these imported cars are coming from China.
So all this did not actually start in February 2024 so the ban happened in February 2024 but in November 2022 the government’s first initiative to encourage people to switch to EVs was to slash the taxes like drastically so for those who don’t know like Ethiopia does have one of the lowest car ownerships even still as of today so in 2022 before there was like all the incentives to switch to electric vehicles according to studies there was less to less than like one in 1000 people only owned a car you know like there was just 1.3 million cars in the streets and by November 2022 we were well above 100 million people you know so and more than half of these cars were like service cars I mean you know buses taxis you know yeah like not privately owned cars so there was two things to tackle first of all they was to encourage like the adoption of like newer cars more environmentally friendly cars and stuff like even before the whole like EV encouragement like the government also put higher taxes on cars that are more than two years older than the current time.
But then yeah so once there was this there was the tax slashing in EV so basically an electric vehicle would just be have like 15% custom duties like to pay you know whereas like a fuel car could be anywhere from like 100% of the car price to like 300% depending on the engine size yeah yeah so basically like a car that like you would you wouldn’t even like look twice at you know in another country like over here it’s like sold for millions you know and also because there was a shortage like you know the car was basically considered a very valuable asset because it holds its price if anything it actually increases in price the older the car gets the more expensive it keeps on getting because it holds on to the price and fights the devaluation of the Ethiopian birr.
But yeah like once these incentives happen like it changed everything it completely changed the whole and like the whole like vehicle scene so the population was skeptic in the beginning adoption was not like either adoption was not as fast like even after all of these incentives because of a couple of reasons so first of all people they’re they’re they’re scared to try something new like naturally and they like there was like a lot of concerns about like where are we going to charge it what about spare parts nobody knew how like even let’s say if the cars have like an eight-year guarantee a ten-year guarantee like there has been none of these cars haven’t even existed for eight years so like there was also like skepticism on like how good these cars are they don’t didn’t hold their value of course because nobody knew like what the resale value is going to be like you know because it was still new and you know there was even like words of like you know like people like you know just like the battery going bad or something like that like you know people didn’t even know like how to gauge things.
And then but still there was more and more and more adoption happening and then yeah the main thing that drove the market growth except for like the ban on electric vehicle was the increase of fuel prices.
Njenga: Wow because we are seeing this is a street on one of the streets is it one of the streets or avenues in Addis Ababa and you can tell that like the car behind is a Volkswagen most likely an electric.
Sarah Assefa: It is, it’s the ID4 yeah yeah and then you can see the trucks and then the others are ahead there you can tell they are petrol. But then you were mentioning about the petrol price?
Sarah Assefa: Yeah
Njenga Hakeenah: People had to shift because of the price increases in fuel.
So basically I think it was yeah it was around 2021 like the government did announce the fact that like they were going to reduce the subsidies in on fuel so first of all the whole reason that this happened was also to save like foreign currency that they spent on fuel which was like around like 7.5 billion a year and half of that went into you know gas stations and stuff so yeah so like that was the main incentive. Hence, prices just kept on increasing so for reference in January 2023 fuel was gasoline was 0.4 dollars per liter and as of January 2025 it has already hit the 0.8 per liter mark we’re going we’re heading to yeah we’re heading to like you know basically like a dollar per liter it’s like it’s crazy yeah yeah it’s a big because that’s a hundred percent increase on fuel prices yeah. It’s gonna keep on increasing now it’s like monthly increments.
Since I released my article with you, by the wa,y it has already increased as of last week so it just turned from like 0.6 something to like 0.7.
Njenga Hakeenah: Wow and you can imagine how much if Ethiopia was to stop importing this fuel how much in savings it would make but I know we are getting to that shortly after here later in this conversation. But first let’s focus at local assembly. And how do Chinese EVs compare to traditional fuel-powered vehicles regarding affordability, performance and maintenance? Even before we get to the local assembly I know you have mentioned a bit of it but are the price discrepancies now so noticeable between ICE vehicles or internal combustion engine vehicles and EVs?
Sarah Assefa: Okay so again the market of vehicles in Ethiopia is a bit more complicated and like funny to a certain extent like even to understand so as I said before like fuel cars really held their price in the past for some reason like I mean there are many reasons like you know people like for example I don’t know if you have it in Nairobi but then have you like the Toyota beats 2004 model for example is up to like one like it depending on the the the state and everything it’s like up to 1.8 million birr which if you even convert it—my bad, convert this one but yeah it’s very important like it’s like ten thousand dollars thereabout or yeah exactly thirteen—more more than more than ten like thirteen thousand dollars you could—only—old car—literally literally you know.
So because people just liked to—yeah thirteen thousand seven hundred dollars because there was there was a lot of factors you know like the spare parts for these cars is like just it’s dirt cheap you know like your car it could be completely smashed and then like it’s gonna be you know fixed like in a week you know like so it was that people were used to it it didn’t like eat up that much fuel and again like fuel was not that expensive in the past so yeah like while electric vehicles was the opposite you know.
Electric vehicles despite the like the tax incentives the original price of these cars is on the higher side just generally speaking you know so even before like all taxes even before they come here before the transportation costs and everything the price of this car for example like the price for fossil fuel cars what made them expensive was the tax whereas for electric because it’s the opposite it’s the actual price of the car that is a bit on the higher side and also yeah so that was like so you know in the beginning there it took some time for like the prices to even like be like similar.
But currently the demand of fuel cars is just like falling so fast yes so like even like people who held their car just for it to like as I said keep its value and keep getting more expensive now they’re just like they just don’t want to sell it at a loss you know they’re just like even if I sell it for the price that I bought it it’s it’s okay yeah so and then whereas the electric vehicle is the opposite so when they first started coming here and being introduced to the market and everything there wasn’t many of them and at the same time also like the the private importers and public importers were selling them at a more affordable price and now because demand is increasing as well by the way even the price of these electric vehicles is like the markup is just like even getting higher.
So like last year for example the BYD Seagull which is like a very common car for—oh even even the one that’s like shown right here this is um this was—I forgot the name of this car—yeah it’s there’s like so many of so many of them but like yeah so like the BYD Seagull for example you know the price of it was 1.7 1.8 million as of last year and then right now it’s—it has climbed up to like 2.6 2.7 depending who you’re buying it from like in millions you know.
But also that’s also because of the birr devaluation by the way there was extreme devaluation in the past year as well but yeah like the cars definitely—but at the end of the day they’re also like still cheaper than a lot of the fuel cars you know.
For example like even the luxury like ID4 ID6 and stuff they’re like you know cheaper than like the few like Tucson cars or like the Toyota like RAV4 and stuff like that like they’re much cheaper and then I feel like it also feels better when you’re like spending your money on the car itself than you are on like taxes you know.
Because this is—we’re talking about like brand new cars you know at the end of the day they are—I can’t compare like a brand new car with a car that has been around for like years as well you know like naturally the brand new car is going to be a bit more pricey you know and they’re still not more pricey than the fuel cars so that that’s definitely more like making them more affordable you know.
Also like for future you know right now there are like more insurance companies offering insurance on car batteries there have been like official importers and assemblers for like Chinese EV vehicles here as well so like spare parts is not going to be a problem anymore and also like the importing of spare parts by companies the government has completely like eliminated all taxes you know.
Yeah like there’s zero tax on like importing spare parts as a company not as a private person of course as a private entity but yeah so like also like the tax on importing like semi-assembled electric vehicles is just five percent as well so like the incentives are there it is more like affordable.
And then also just as a comparison it it costs 20 birr which is like not even like five cents—yeah yeah like it’s like it’s not even—it costs 20 birr to charge an ID4 for example and let’s just hold like an ID4 from 20 percent to 80 to 90 percent it costs 20 birr whereas fuel prices as we have said is 0.8 dollars per liter you know.
So just like make the comparison like people are like fuel prices really really—like yeah they’re like—I mean EV owners like are saving hundreds and thousands of birr—which is thousands of dollars just like saving from like charging up you know.
And then like besides that also there’s a fuel shortage as well so you know there’s usually like queues by like fuel stations and stuff so like they’re also like saving time as well. So I would say definitely it’s affordable the cars are like more affordable than the internal combustion vehicles and at the same time they’re—they’re like—these are—we’re talking like brand new cars you know so it’s yeah.
Njenga Hakeenah: Nice. And I think the car that you said you could not remember, it’s a Ben Bar.
Sarah Assefa: Yes! This is one of the taxi drivers that I featured who had to shift from an ICE vehicle to this EV, and he was telling me that the savings he’s making are enormous. That there was apprehension and kind of fear at first until he was able to provide comfortably for his family and then he was like, “Oh man, this is the way to go.”
100 percent. So this is Solomon — he was the main subject for my article and yes, as you said, he bought the car on bank loans as well. So he’s also paying bank installments which are around like $500 a month and he has still been able to comfortably provide for his family. So you could only imagine how much this car is saving him.
Because also as a ride-hailing driver, you also need to remember that time is also very precious, you know. So let’s say if you spend like hours lining up for fuel every week — it really does affect their work a lot. Sometimes because of lack of fuel they would stay home and like not work on that day as well and stuff.
So he was telling me there was huge hesitation in the beginning. He was also an electrician and he also had a family and he had like a decent ICE car and it wasn’t like it was breaking down or anything — but he just decided to make the shift. He knew it was a good idea.
And then like also, as I said, as the demand increased, because the supply cannot catch up as fast, the prices of these cars have been increasing. Just like naturally — like the dealers and the brokers and the players in this EV market scene — so he knew that the prices, like since he bought this car which was six months ago, and compared to today, the price of the car has already increased by like around 600 to 700 thousand birr. Exactly. Just in the six months.
Because also — because of the devaluation of the birr as well, you know, like I mean yeah — the birr against the foreign currency. So yeah, he knew that if he keeps on waiting eventually this has to become the move. Because also, he spent all of his profit — like he had no profit — because he was spending all of his money on fuel. And it’s only projected to increase. Like you know, from the coming — like it’s literally increasing in increments now of like a month, two months I think.
So he just knew that like you know it’s a race against time, and he had to get this electric vehicle. And now all the stakeholders around him as well are just like “Yeah, it was a great idea.”
Njenga Hakeenah: It is. And I think it is good to see such changes happening.
And I think now we can shift, because the price of the EVs in Ethiopia of course is affected by the fact that most of them are imported. But then when we start talking about local assembly, we know that prices will go down. And there are manufacturing partnerships which are driving economic growth in Ethiopia.
And one of the most notable companies is Belayneh Kindie — I hope I’m saying that right.
Sarah Assefa:
Equally clueless in that. Don’t worry — it’s perfect. Yeah, Belayneh Kindie.
Njenga Hakeenah: Yeah, they recently launched a hundred electric buses in Addis Ababa. What are the active or planned partnerships between Ethiopia and Chinese companies for local EV production and assembly? What are the challenges and the opportunities that exist in this space as we speak?
Sarah Assefa: Okay. So yes, as you said, Belina Kindie is one of the biggest players in the electric vehicle assembly scene.
So first, we’re going to start—I’m going to start with who else is in this field as well. Tamrin Motors also started a similar partnership with JAC Motors—like the JAC cars. So in the beginning, like last year, I think, sometime around last year, they just started importing cars from China directly.
And then right now, they are going — yes — like they have five different models in there starting from very small compact cars to like bigger SUV cars and even trucks I believe. But now they’re also going to get into assembling these vehicles.
And even Marathon Motors is thinking the same thing — Marathon Motors was the one that started the whole car assembly thing years ago. Like even the whole electric vehicle initiative here. But they had to cut operations because of lack of foreign currency.
But then now also there are words that they will be coming back to the game as well. And this time with — I’m not sure what the company was — it was either Hyundai (which is not Chinese) or it was with a Chinese company. I’m not sure of that.
But yeah, so the main challenge is availability of foreign currency. Because at the end of the day, labor here is low-cost. Like all that has to happen is to train the workers — I mean, train and employ the labor here to assemble the cars or even receive semi-assembled cars.
But in order to scale up, it’s definitely a venture that requires a lot of capital. And it has to be in foreign currency, because everything’s coming from China.
But I’m definitely keeping an eye on this venture, because it’s very interesting and it’s growing so fast. For example, when we published the article about Belina Kindie, they did not have these 100 buses just released into the streets. But they do now.
And even Tamrin Motors — it was as I was working on my research for this article that I found out that they are also going to get into assembling cars here.
So, definitely the whole goal of all that is to make these electric vehicles even cheaper, even more accessible to the public, make spare parts available — and then naturally also if assembly is started here, we’re training electricians to fix the cars and stuff. Because that’s also a problem we’ll be discussing in a bit.
But yeah, the benefits that will come from it are a lot. But then again, there are definitely challenges when initiating these kinds of projects.
Njenga Hakeenah: Nice. And I think we will continue with that because I know that there are some Chinese companies that are operating in Ethiopia. Which are these brands that are in Ethiopia and what are the strategies they are using to penetrate the market? For instance in Kenya — just like two days ago I did a story on a company that is launching small cars for taxi business and their entry is that one day a week the money goes to the taxi driver — they don’t remit it to the taxi company. And then on holidays all the money goes to the drivers.
But because they are leasing these vehicles they are paying 25 dollars per day for this car — which is very affordable for many of those drivers. But in Ethiopia what are the strategies that these companies are using, the brands that you will mention that are there?
Sarah Assefa: Okay, so again — yeah, so like different companies are using different incentives. But the most common one I would say is more access to installment plans.
So like Ethiopia, unlike a lot of other countries, didn’t have much of that concept. It’s like — you buy your car with money up front — like right then and there, that’s it. You know, cash only. That’s how it used to be.
And then like installment plans started — especially like through a company and stuff like that — that did start like a few years ago, just on even normal cars. But now it’s everywhere.
Like for electric vehicles, there’s — for example like I’ve mentioned — GreenTech Africa has these installment plans. They’re one of the official importers of Chinese vehicles — so like, yeah — they have like five vehicles under their company and they have these plans.
Moenco very recently also became the first official — like they officially collaborated with BYD and opened a BYD showroom here as well, which — yeah, so like — Moenco is one of the biggest car importers here. They were one of the official importers for Toyota cars, and now they’ve also partnered up with BYD.
So even they are offering not just installment plans but also like warranties, you know, because this one is an official partner of BYD. So — there was — I forgot the year, but it was like somewhere between — yeah, so it’s like more than five years definitely.
And yeah, so mainly it’s like installment plans, repair plans — because like also that’s what people were always worried about, you know, like “What about availability of spare parts?” “What are we going to do?”
Because again, even Solomon — like the subject for my previous article — he has mentioned, if anything goes wrong with the car, like if there’s no official showroom for that certain car here, you’re going to have to order the spare part, and then that would take like weeks to months. So basically the car just sits at home if it was like a very important spare part.
So it’s not even just about prices — it’s also about availability. So now, for example, even Moenco — that’s what they’re trying to achieve, is just to have abundant spare parts here, the same way they did for Toyota.
So yeah, that’s the main incentives they’re giving.
And then like — as you said — also for ride-hailing companies: one of the first and the biggest ride-hailing company that we have called Ride — last year they did announce that they are allowing any driver that works for them to bring in their old car, and then give it to them, and then basically get an electric vehicle in return — like a fully electric vehicle.
So depending on the old car’s condition, of course, it’s going to determine the value of that car — so depending on that they’ll be paying the rest of the money in installments. So that was like a huge incentive, definitely.
Even like they keep on pushing us to order electric vehicles, you know, like we get discounts and stuff like that when we order electric vehicles via the app as well. So yeah.
So definitely — there are even companies that just ask you to deposit 200 — but like for us, it’s like up to five dollars every day — and then once it reaches a certain amount you get the car, and then after that you pay monthly installments.
So like — there have been so many incentives just to drive up adoption — yeah, because people are going to switch to these electric vehicles eventually, you know, like there’s no other choice.
So yes, it’s just a matter of — who do they buy it from?
Njenga Hakeenah: Definitely. And I think that’s a really interesting strategy, because I have seen the trade-in options here in Kenya, but they’re usually on ICE vehicles.
But if I can trade my ICE vehicle for an EV then that sounds…
Sarah Assefa: Oh that’s — that’s what most of the ride-hailing drivers are doing by the way.
Like even there were other drivers that I interviewed too for my piece, and almost all of them — they didn’t buy a brand new EV. They had one, they had like an ICE vehicle and they just — yeah — they just swapped it for an electric vehicle.
They’re even giving incentives to Ladas — like the blue, like very old, super old taxis that have been like existing here. Now they’re just telling them: give us your car, and then — brand new EV!
Njenga Hakeenah: Yes! That’s interesting. Of course, these partnerships are coming in — you’ve mentioned like Belayneh Kindie and Moenco and everyone else — they are dealing either with BYD or all of the Chinese car brands that are coming.
So there is BYD. We have seen a Xiaomi somewhere…
Sarah Assefa: Yeah, yeah — oh yes, yes — yeah. There’s even like — yeah — there’s like very fancy cars coming, electric vehicles coming as well, you know. People are just going crazy to a certain extent — they’re having fun with it.
Njenga Hakeenah: Haha yeah I know we can have these conversations forever. But let’s move on to the charging infrastructure.
When we are talking about charging infrastructure — we have seen that people are held back by either the lack of it or the prices of the EVs, which have been the biggest concerns.
But how is Ethiopia’s EV policy making EVs affordable? You’ve mentioned a bit of that — but then, it sounds like it is private companies that are offering these incentives.
But is the policy enabling affordability of the vehicles for the average EV consumer or Ethiopian buyer?
And when it comes to charging infrastructure — is the policy helping? Like saying: we have to have this many by the end of this year?
Are there steps being taken to expand charging infrastructure — now that Ethiopia is leading the way for many African countries on EV adoption?
Sarah Assefa: Okay. So — the answer to your first question — as far as I know there hasn’t been any government laws or regulations on keeping the prices of EVs, let’s say, affordable or accessible or so on. It has mostly been decided by the market, you know?
So like, supply and demand has been what’s basically driving — I mean, deciding — the prices.
So there’s no such thing as: “Oh, you cannot mark up the car more than 50 percent of the price,” or “100 percent,” or whatever — yeah. So it’s mostly the dealers — the players in the EV scene — that are deciding the prices of these cars.
The only one that the government is very, very involved in is public transportation. So yeah — all of these buses, like again, like the ones that Belina Kindie has built and stuff — the main incentive was to make it as cheap as possible and make as many as possible as well.
So there was a lot of incentives given to companies trying to do anything like this — whether they are private or government affiliated — for them to start up assembling plants here.
But otherwise, for like private use — for like a normal private consumer and stuff — it has been just the market deciding the prices of these cars. So like — there definitely is a markup.
Even when you look at the prices of even just the most common cars here and stuff — when you look it up online and then you see how much it is here — like even excluding the transportation and the 15 percent taxes and everything — they’re still a bit more expensive. And still getting more expensive because, you know, the supply and demand is there. But besides that — yeah, so that’s about it.
And then, yeah — for the charging infrastructure. The charging infrastructure has been very impressive honestly, because even when I wrote my first piece on electric vehicles and stuff, when I started doing the research and all — a few years, I mean, just almost like a year ago — there were less than seven charging stations that I could find. You know, excluding the ones that were in government offices.
Like, there were big hotels and stuff saying that they were charging stations — and I actually went there and I checked, and I didn’t find any. And then just within these few months as I was keeping an eye on this, there have been so many charging station projects.
So for example, the one that you’re showing right now — it’s built by Ethio Telecom. So again, the main players in this game are — what do you call them — they are government companies as well. So Ethio Telecom is basically like the biggest telecom company we have here. Almost like your Safaricom in Kenya.
So like, this one was actually before it was inaugurated, before it officially started operations — now when you pass by it, there are queues. We could already see that.
There’s like almost 10 charging stations — I think — and there’s already queues on those.
So the plan is to have one of these at least in all the main hotspots — hubs in the city — and then definitely expand nationwide.
So in Addis Ababa, progress is going very fast. You know, infrastructure-wise — like there’s charging stations in all the new buildings, which have been required to be built with charging stations. All government offices have charging stations as well.
And also — yeah — even already existing companies and buildings too have to build charging stations. There have been more professionals that can come and build a charging station in your own house.
Like even if you just buy an EV, and then you want to build — I mean, you want to have that charging station in your home — like last year it was so hard. As far as I know there were like two guys that did it, you know?
Njenga Hakeenah: Wow!
Sarah Assefa: Yeah! And now it’s just — there are so many electricians already offering the service.
So the change is big.
Njenga Hakeenah: I can imagine because when you look at the kind of shift — and even the streets that we looked at today — when you see three, four EVs in that frame, it tells you something. That the neighbors — the minds — are shifting. And that, you know, people are becoming more accepting of these EVs.
And it’s a very good thing to see in Ethiopia. And it’s a wonderful kind of conversation that we’ve had with you, Sarah.
Sarah Assefa: Thank you for your time!
Njenga Hakeenah: Thank you so much. It’s always so good to have these conversations. I can’t wait to speak with you in like a year and see all the things that will have—
Sarah Assefa: 100%! Yeah, yeah, definitely — even six months! Yeah — it’s gonna be happening overnight. You wake up — there wasn’t a charging station here — then there is a charging station already there, you know?
Or we didn’t have the cars, but now they’re here.
Njenga Hakeenah: And the interesting perspective that I’ve found is that the dealers are not waiting for the government to kind of tell them, “Offer incentives. Provide this to your customers.”
Sarah Assefa: Yeah! They’re setting the — yeah, they’re setting basically the market however they want. Basically the government just put in the incentives. They put in—
Njenga Hakeenah: Yes—
Sarah Assefa: Yeah. And then the dealers are just going crazy with it!
Njenga Hakeenah: From affordable minibuses to luxury SUVs, Ethiopia’s roads are transforming. We have seen that in the images that we have been able to splash.
And the question isn’t just about cars — it’s about jobs. It’s about energy security. And the future of mobility in this East African country.
And that brings us to the end of today’s conversation on what’s next for Ethiopia’s EV market.
Local assembly plants like Belayne Kindie Motors and partnerships with Chinese giants like BYD and JAC are definitely a step that will help overcome current hurdles — but how fast remains to be seen.
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