Electric Motorcycle Plant to be established in Uganda, creating over 9000 jobs

Government has entered a partnership with electric motorbike and battery swapping provider Mauto, to produce over 140,000 Electric Motorbikes and 3000 Swapping Centres.

The electric motorbikes will be selling under the brand name SPIRO, which launched in Africa in May 2022 and plans to expand into ten countries by 2030.

The company executives last week signed an MOU with government, which was represented by Minister of Works and Transport Gen Edward Katumba Wamala and Junior Finance Minister Hon Henry Musasizi.

Shegun Adjadi Bakari, the CEO of SPIRO and partner at the African Fund for Transformation and Industrialization (ATIF), said the partnership with the Ugandan government was an “unprecedented step in the transition of African cities to more sustainable mobility.”

“This partnership, the first between an African government and a green mobility company on the continent, will create over 9,000 jobs.” he said

Mr Bakari announced that they plant to set up an electric motorbike assembly plant which in order to promote “made in Uganda”.

Electric motorbikes, he says, will be affordable for future users thanks to this factory as they will be able to save up to 40%.

Under this partnership, Bakari said, SPIRO will deploy 140000 electric motorbikes into the Ugandan market over the next five years, as well as developing over 3000 recharging and battery swapping stations across the country to support this transition, which will mainly target “boda-boda”, motorbike taxi riders.

“Boda-bodas taxis now account for more than 40% of travel flows in Kampala, and more in other cities across the country. By targeting these users, we are clearly demonstrating our commitment to addressing the climate and health challenges posed by the pollution associated with our current modes of transport.” he said.

President Yoweri Museveni at the close of last year announced Government’s plan to foster migration from petroleum fuelled vehicles, starting with the bodabodas.

This was at the time fuel prices jumped worldwide following the supply disruption caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Bakari said in the coming weeks, they will be launching launch a program to replace traditional motorbikes with electric motorbikes, “as we are already doing in Benin, Togo and Rwanda. Ugandan drivers will be able to hand in their old motorbike and leave with one of our new electric models. This is a first in Africa.” he said.

SPIRO’s deployment relies on the support of investors such as ATIF, which has invested more than 50 million dollars in the start-up.

Today Mauto performs over 130,000 swaps from more than 250 operational battery swapping stations per month across Benin, Togo, and Rwanda.

“Our motorbikes are specially designed and adapted for the African market and the swapping technology allows users to easily travel with no range limits thanks to a battery swap station which take 3 minutes to swap batteries, compared to the usual 3 hours for a standard charge. The 4,500 motorbikes on the road have already travelled more than 22 million km with no CO2 emissions,” he said.

“Our ambition is to be the leading partner on the continent for countries that want to accelerate their transition to greener mobility. The signing of this agreement is a demonstration of our commitment to contribute to the vision of Uganda and its President, which places the migration from fossil fuels to electric transport as one of its priorities.”