African electric bus provider BasiGo has announced plans to begin delivering 28 new electric buses in Kigali, Rwanda next month. The company will also install the corresponding infrastructure to charge 25 buses at its Rwandex depot overnight.
The fleet will serve both urban and inter-city routes. The company hopes to deploy a total of 100 electric buses across Rwanda in 2025, following a pilot program back in December 2023. BasiGo says it has already received more than 360 reservations from Rwandan bus operators seeking to replace diesel buses or expand their existing fleet. However, in 2023 the company stated that it wanted to put 200 electric buses on Rwandan roads by the end of last year – a target it clearly missed.
“BasiGo is proud to be delivering the largest shipment of electric buses to date into Rwanda,” said Jit Bhattacharya, CEO and Co-Founder at BasiGo. ” Rwanda’s commitment to sustainable transport has created an ideal environment for private sector investment and innovation into E-mobility. With this first major shipment of electric buses, BasiGo is proud to help Rwanda take a major step towards the goal of universal, electrified public transport for the country. “
BasiGo is currently upgrading its Rwandex charging and service depot with 1MW of power, which it says will reliably charge 25 electric buses overnight. The buses will be operated through the firm’s Pay-As-You-Drive model, which provides charging, service, maintenance, and insurance to bus operators in the area.
BasiGo says it also hopes to deploy more charging stations across Rwanda, although it has not yet confirmed the number or type of chargers to be made available.
In October 2024, BasiGo secured $24m (about 22 million euros) in private equity funding to expand its activity across sub-Saharan Africa. It recently opened an assembly line for its E9 Kubwa model in Kenya, where it plans to produce 1,000 buses over the next three years.
The E9 Kubwa was developed locally in Kenya and will be exclusively assembled in the country. It has capacity for 54 passengers, a charging time of less than two hours and can cover up to 400km per day. Founded and headquartered in Nairobi, the firm initially imported buses from BYD – but now manufactures its vehicles locally. [Source : basi-go.com]. (End)