Q&A: What happens when a pedal bicycle is made electric?

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Electric bicycles are expensive, sometimes costing more than fuel motorcycles. To cut this price, retrofitting pedal bicycles with electric motors and batteries is taking root. This week, we interviewed Daccon Owino, the founder of Anywhere Mobility Solutions Ltd, a Kenya-based startup specialising in the retrofitting of pedal bicycles into electric bicycles. 

• Demand for electric bicycles in Kenya is growing rapidly, but the market is dominated by a handful of startups, mainly eBee, the market leader, and eWaka Mobility. Mr Owino’s startup however seeks to drive down the cost of electric bicycles through conversion of existing pedal bicycles.

• The entrepreneur has experience in the mobility sector, having started out at eBee where he gained knowledge on Kenya’s bicycle industry. While demand for electric bicycles remains concentrated in the capital Nairobi, Mr Owino hopes to venture into other cities soon. 

More details

How is the conversion of a pedal bicycle into an electric one done?

Mr Owino: What we do is buy local Black Mamba bicycles and then what we just import is the motor, the controller and the electric lithium battery. We have a partner in China and an OEM (original equipment manufacturer). We just ship our components, which are the motor, the battery and the controller, and then now our technicians just fix the electric Black Mamba, and then now we do some tests. It goes through some training, to the road, and then once all the tests and the standards have been verified, now we can be able to deploy them to the market. So currently we have a few of them that are operating.

How different are retrofitted electric bicycles compared to the imported ones in the market?

Mr Owino: Number one, we are very cost effective in terms of our pricing and our lease programs, whereby we don't ask for a substantial amount of deposit before use our bicycles, and the daily rate, if you look at the market, they are so high, I won’t even mention the amount that you're supposed to pay before they get the bikes. Our bicycles are very cheap, easy to maintain, and we are also targeting the low-income delivery riders. Because do you know that Nairobi currently has about 40 to 60 delivery riders who are using the normal Black Mamba without being retrofitted into electric? And then we also we don't have any initial capital requirements for the delivery riders.

When did you start Anywhere Mobility Solutions?

Mr Owino: We started operations in 2023, and followed all the steps of operating because, you know, remember, we are a startup, so we had to do a market survey. We did a pilot before we continued to also prove the concept, viability and traction. We developed quickly and retrofitted about six electric Black Mambas so that you can just call some delivery riders to test it. We did this for a period of eight months, because we need to get data from the delivery riders to have an understanding on the basic information, like the distance covered daily, the amount of current earnings, the total number of deliveries they complete each day on a normal bicycle and now, plus on an electric Black Mamba. These are processes that we repeat before we get a nice product market fit.

Electric bicycles are often neglected when electric vehicles are being discussed. What is unique about your company or business model?

Mr Owino: Anywhere Mobility Solutions is Kenyan electric mobility company that has engineered and developed the first electric Black Mamba in Kenya. We are at a rough stage of getting a patent and then making sure that now, if anybody wants to come in and do an electric Black Mamba that is retrofitted, probably come through us get the standards, and then now they'll be able to operate. We're very keen to ensure that the standards are not dropped or compromised because it's not a conventional electric bicycle, it's something that we are retrofitting.

What motivated you to join the EV industry, did you do a related course or organically developed interest over time?

Mr Owino: It's very interesting because I didn't have any experience in the automotive, environment sectors, or climate tech, I was just poached by two Dutch guys with the former CEO and a founding member of eBee to help them found the company. At that particular time, the electric mobility market was in its formative stages. There was not much information, so they really wanted to just understand the market, and if it (selling electric bicycles) was something that could be done.

During your time in the industry so far, has it grown the way you expected when you started this journey?

Mr Owino: In 2021 there were less than 300 registered electric vehicles in the country. And by that I simply mean two-wheeler, three-wheeler and four wheelers. Currently, four, five years later, we are at 5,100 registered electric vehicles. So that is very good progress. And it shows you that at least there's been some improvement in the sector.

What are your biggest challenges as an electric bicycle startup in a nascent market?

Mr Owino: Competition is currently very strong because we have electric mobility companies that are developed and are very strong in the market, but they don't want any kind of partnership or collaboration, especially in terms of the charging infrastructure and battery interoperability. Also, government policies are not even friendly. Just look at the taxes we pay. We pay many taxes such as excise duty, Value Added Tax, import duty to name just a few. Those rates are just high. We should copy our neighbors, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda and Ethiopia that have removed all those duties for the electric vehicles that are being imported in the country.