Consumer View: A lack of spare parts is my biggest worry

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If a motorcycle breaks down and spare parts are not readily available, the rider, who relies on it for his or her daily income, is forced off the road and loses income for hours or even days. For petrol-powered motorcycles, spare parts are available at every other parts shop. But this is not the case for electric motorcycles, says Karis, a rider based in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. 

• Mr Karis continues to use a petrol bike he has used for years, but a number of his colleagues use e-bikes from local firms. Unlike his bike, for which he can easily get spare parts, he watches his colleagues agonise over where to get parts for their e-bikes.  

• “The (electric motorcycle) companies haven’t brought their services closer to the people. If your bike breaks down, you must find means to carry it to their offices for repair,” he says. 

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For Mr Karis, he likes most things about electric motorcycles. “They are appealing to look at, their designs are really good,” he says. The motorcycle taxi rider, who operates from a populated neighborhood in Nairobi, commends electric motorcycle companies for widening their charging and battery swapping networks, bringing them closer to where riders operate.

However, the same has not been done for repair and service centres. Spare parts are a key cog in the commercial motorcycle business. For petrol-powered motorcycles, these parts can be readily found and at a fairly affordable cost. This makes the experience of using them seamless for operators.

Riders who depend on ferrying passengers or goods need their motorcycles to be reliable. This lack of spare parts for electric motorcycles can lead to inconsistent service, damaging the rider’s reputation with customers or clients.

“For you to get a spare part, you have to go to their main station,” says Mr Karis. “It’s difficult to get their services especially once you have finished paying the loan for the motorcycle.”

But unavailability is not the main problem. The cost of electric motorcycle spare parts is prohibitive, says Mr Karis. Oftentimes, it costs multiple times what they are used to paying for fuel motorcycle parts.

“This means that maintaining the electric motorcycle becomes a big challenge,” he says.

Due to the lived experiences of his colleagues, Mr Karis has postponed his dream of transitioning to an electric motorcycle. He says he currently cannot afford to maintain it, and is waiting for prices to reduce.

“It was the same situation when these petrol motorcycles initially came to the market. Spare part prices used to be very high but once adoption grew and competition increased, prices have come down,” he adds.

Mr Karis would also like to see longer-range batteries introduced. Currently, the majority of electric motorcycle riders are limited to operating within the town. This is mainly because swapping stations are still scarce, limiting their range.

“You may want to use your motorcycle to go to Kiambu or Murang’a (nearby towns) but this is not possible with electric motorcycles,” he says.