- Mobility Rising
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- A well-funded new electric motorcycle maker enters the market
A well-funded new electric motorcycle maker enters the market
 | Electric motorcycle startup Zeno has opened sales for its Emara electric motorcycle in India, and limited pre-orders in Kenya. Customers can buy the motorcycles outright or pay over 24 months. Zeno secured $9.5 million seed funding last year from Lowercarbon Capital, Toyota Ventures, 4DX Ventures, Active Impact, Advantedge, MCJ, and RedBlue. |
Zeno’s Emara has a multi-modal charging ecosystem (battery swapping, fast charging, home charging), which is useful when facing range anxiety in markets where charging and swapping stations are still limited.
The company faces stiff competition in both Kenya and India, which have dozens and hundreds of electric motorcycle companies respectively, buoyed by growing consumer demand.
Our take: Zeno’s model, where the battery can either be charged or switched out at swapping stations, is likely to be popular as it gives users more options… Read more (2 min)
 | The Egyptian government has announced it will guarantee sales for five years to electric vehicle manufacturers who establish local production. It is the latest in a long lineup of incentives that Egypt is rolling out to investors to boost local EV production. The Egyptian market, one of the fastest-growing in Africa, is dominated by Chinese EVs. |
If actualised, it would mean that EV firms would have surety that they will sell all the vehicles they produce, which could encourage them to scale investments in local production. This would boost Egypt’s manufacturing industry and create jobs.
The Egyptian market is however likely to absorb most of the EVs that are made locally — not least because of vehicle import restrictions, which are expected to create scarcity. Egypt recently imposed bars on the import of vehicles, specifically limiting individuals to importing one car every five years.
Our take: For Egypt to become an EV industrial powerhouse, it should look beyond the local market and target exports… Read more (2 min)
 | The expected minimum salary for top finance leaders in Africa’s fast-growing electric mobility sector is $77,000 per year, while $109,000 is considered the average retention benchmark above which the risk of poaching is much reduced. In exceptional cases, top finance salaries at mobility multinationals can rise to $205,000, though all this varies by country. |
By “leaders” we mean the top functional posts in a company. Our benchmark data is for mid-size companies and assembled in partnership with Shortlist, a top recruitment agency in Africa.
In renewables sales, top leaders tend to earn between $59,000 and $89,000, with a premium rate of $127,000. Marketing and communications leaders make between $55,000 and $77,000, while the premium rate is $109,000.
Our take: Egypt has the lowest pay scale but is making among the fastest progress in rolling out EVs… Read more (2 min)
Events
🗓️ Register for Africa E-Mobility Week’s webinar (May 29)
🗓️ Attend Automorrow Expo in Egypt (May 30)
🗓️ Plan for Transport Evolution Africa Furum happening in South Africa (June 17)
Jobs
👩🏻💼 Join M-Kopa as a Senior Product Manager for e-mobility (Kenya)
💰 Become a Sales and Marketing Representative at E-Bikes Africa (Kenya)
👨🏻💼 Manage Ampersand’s workforce (Rwanda)
Various
💵 Wahu Mobility has been granted permission to sell carbon credits to Switzerland
🚍 BasiGo powers Nairobi’s first all-electric buses for OMA Sacco
🚗 MojaEv to start local assembly of EVs in Kenya this year
Seen on LinkedIn
Calvin Tiony, Quality Manager at Isuzu East Africa, says, “Exempting or reducing VAT for local manufacturing should be the next incentive to grow the automotive manufacturing sector. “
Seen on LinkedIn
William Kelly, a South African EV advocate, says, “SA still has punitive import duties on EVs. Morocco now makes more cars than we do, and (is) growing. These are big long-term trends that the government thought they could kick the can down the road with and that road ran out a while back.“