- High cost of Opibus production
- Imbalanced demand and supply of production
- Maintenance of EVs difficulties.
OPIBUS, a start-up, has launched its first electric bus. The Kenyan-Swedish company has begun operations in the transportation industry.
OPIBUS is currently conducting a pilot to prepare for the commercial launch of Electronic Vehicle (EV) buses in Kenya in the middle of this year. The company’s vision is to reduce costs and simplify implementations of electric vehicles all over Africa. In addition, OPIBUS initiated a funding round closure at the start of COP26, raising US$7.5 million for the company.
In the last five years, OPIBUS has been transitioning petrol and diesel engines to electric ones, which has proven to be a significant challenge given that the conversion costs around $39,000. Major benefits of Electronic vehicles are the reductions of the cost of transportation and emission of carbon.
The OPIBUS electric bus has a power consumption of 225 kilowatts and a top speed of 85 kilometres per hour. The powered battery has a capacity of 121-kilowatt hours and can be charged in as little as 1.5 hours. One battery can power the car for 120 kilometres before needing to be recharged. Compared to a diesel bus, the bus will significantly reduce the cost of importing fully built vehicles and reduce maintenance services by 80%.The buses will first be deployed in peri-urban environments around Nairobi’s capital, where several charging stations will be installed.
Challenges include:
- The bus’s mileage impedes long-distance travel; a single battery charge can only travel 120 kilometres.
- Kenya’s electric grid would struggle to withstand the strain caused by the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
- The battery takes a substantial amount of time to charge. This could increase demand for battery charging stations, and widespread adoption of EVs would increase traffic at these locations.
Implementation of OBIPUS in Kenya would place stress on the power generation sector. One bus uses 225 kilowatts per day. In 2012, Kenya had 80,000 certified municipal vehicles.
Following the official launch, the OPIBUS large scale production unit aims to produce 500 cars per month. In five years, car electricity consumption will be 3.24 billion kilowatt-hours per year.
Kenya generated 1.043 gigatonnes of electricity in August 2021, according to Statista. As of November 2021, KenGen had a new energy gross demand peak of 0.873 gigawatts.
Kenya imports power from Uganda and Ethiopia. For the future of the public transportation industry to go electric, the East African nation must increase electricity generation to the national grid.