Nigerian bike-hailing company MAX will introduce its electric motorbikes in 2020, the company’s co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, Chinedu Azodo said Friday. Azodo made the disclosure at the TechCabal’s Mobility Townhall.
News about MAX’s electric pursuits is not new, the company first announced the plan in June when it closed a $7 million funding round. At the time the company said the plan was still in the pilot phase and that it was working with grid operators across Nigeria to deploy charging stations.
Azodo explained that the delay in the introduction of the bikes is because they are trying to figure out how the EV should look like and how things should operate. MAX has also made a new hire who will lead its electric plans.
He explained that the infrastructures are being put in place to support these bikes especially the introduction of charging stations. “The charging stations and other infrastructure will be in place”, he said, “[and] it would effectively be cheaper for the driver to make movements with electric models than it is to run on gas”.
He shared that the long term value of electric vehicles will lead to less noise, “you won’t have the pollution, [and] reduces incidences like asthma attacks.”
MAX won’t be the first company to introduce electric vehicles in Africa. In Rwanda, Ampersand is leading the adoption of electric bikes. The bike manufacturer developed a custom solution that mounts batteries on motorbikes. German auto company, Volkswagen, has launched a manufacturing plant in Rwanda and says it will assemble as much as 50 electric cars for its car-hailing service, Move.
The innovations of both companies have encouraged the Rwandan government to announce national mobility policies focused on increasing the use of electric vehicles.
Source: TechCabal
