BasiGo Deploys 100th Electric Bus In East Africa!

Last Updated on: 4th August 2025, 10:35 am

I have been covering developments in Africa’s electric mobility sector for close to a decade now, and a lot has happened in that time. Several firms operating in the various countries on the African continent have done a magnificent job of building the continent’s electric mobility industry from scratch. After going through the various stages of early pilots, further pilots, multiple iterations, and pivots, a number of them found the sweet spot and then graduated into early commercialization phases of their products and business models. These firms had to dig deep in their research and development phases to zone in on the right products that are the best fit for the local market and operating conditions, especially the local terrain as well as rough road conditions in many locations. This is because for their products to take off, they really needed to make products that are robust enough to match or exceed the fossil-fueled products that are currently on the market.

Most of the firms involved in the industry are startups, and they had to develop the right business models for their specific countries as well as ensure that the unit economics centered around their prospective customers’ ability to pay while ensuring that their business models remained viable enough to attract investment to scale. As the sector was evolving, there has been significant emphasis placed on the potential leapfrog opportunity presented by the transition to electric mobility in a lot of African countries. Personally, I have always thought that adoption of electric vehicles in Africa will happen a whole lot faster than a lot of people think, and I am glad to see that we are starting to see a lot more activity in several countries on the continent, from electric motorcycles to electric tuk-tuks to electric buses for public transport. Speaking of buses, Cape Town–based Golden Arrow Bus Services recently started receiving electric buses from their initial 120 electric bus order from BYD. This order is part of the company’s bigger plans to transition its entire fleet of over 1,200 buses to electric. In Kenya, the progress being made by companies such as BasiGo shows us how quickly a transition to electric buses can take place. 

BasiGo has recently reached a significant milestone. From just 2 pilot buses in Nairobi in early 2022, BasiGo has just announced that it now has 100 electric buses now operating across Kenya and Rwanda, saying this is a major milestone for electric public transport in East Africa. BasiGo says “This isn’t just about numbers — it’s about proof of concept at scale.” 

Here are some of the highlights of BasiGo’s progress:

• 20,000+ daily passengers now
• 1,000+ jobs created across assembly, maintenance, charging, and operations
• 5,000 liters of diesel avoided every day
• 250 tonnes of CO₂ emissions saved each month

So far, with hundred buses now in operation, the fleet has now covered 5,076,353 electric km, 2,280T of CO2 emissions avoided, 1,023,341 liters of diesel avoided, and 8,072,162 passengers carried. BasiGo already has orders for over 500 buses and hopes to deliver over 1,000 buses over the next few years. 

This is really great progress by BasiGo in just three years. This shows us how fast things can really move in Africa’s electric mobility sector. BasiGo had started with electric buses that seat around 30 or so passengers that were deployed on intracity routes. BasiGo has now moved to add smaller 16- to 19-seater minibuses for these intercity routes, inline with the needs of the operators serving these intercity routes. Basio’s new pilot program, in partnership with 4NTE SACCO and Manchester Travellers Coach SACCO, marks a significant milestone in extending clean, reliable public transport solutions beyond Nairobi and into regional routes. 4NTE SACCO will pilot a BasiGo electric matatu on the Nyahururu–Nyeri and Nyahururu–Nakuru routes, while Manchester SACCO will operate on the Thika–Nairobi corridor. This 16- to 19-seater segment is currently served by tens of thousands of ICE minibuses and therefore presents another large addressable market to tackle, further accelerating the transition to electric buses.

Besides lowering the cost of operation for bus operators and reducing emissions, this transition will have a huge impact on these economies in several ways. Most of the countries in East Africa import diesel and petrol, using a significant chunk of foreign currency in the process. This puts a lot of pressure on their trade balance, which is negative for a lot of countries on the African continent. Progressively substituting imported diesel with locally generated electricity will help relieve this pressure in the long run. This foreign currency can then be allocated to other areas. 

Another positive is that most of the electricity generated in East African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda is mostly from renewables. Uganda, for example, is a great place for electrification of mobility. According to Uganda’s electricity regulator, ERA, the country’s installed electricity generation capacity has been on an upward trend for over a decade. This has been driven by the commissioning of various renewable energy projects, mostly hydro generation projects. Notable ones over the past 5 years include the commissioning of Isimba (183 MW) and Karuma (600 MW) hydropower plants. By the end of Q2 2024, Uganda’s installed capacity had reached 2,048.1 MW, a 63.7% increase from 1,251 MW in 2019. This is pretty impressive growth and Uganda has spare capacity overnight to charge a lot of electric vehicles.

Kenya is another great place where over 90% of generation comes from renewables. In fact, electric vehicles in Kenya can help address an urgent problem. Every night, Kenya curtails over 1GWh due to depressed overnight demand. The government has been trying to promote a 24-hour economy to get factories and businesses to drive up demand. As most vehicles are parked overnight, this could be a great opportunity for Kenya to solve this problem and unlock further efficiencies across the entire energy and mobility value chain. 

With 100 buses in Kenya and Rwanda, BasiGo has already shown us the way by displacing 1,023,341 liters of imported diesel. As more electric buses, taxis, and motorcycles are added in Kenya, more diesel will be displaced and a significant cut could be realized in terms of the amount of electricity generation that is curtailed every night. 

Images courtesy of BasiGo