A Peek Into Ethiopia’s E-mobility Race

The 2025 Africa e-mobility week, the fourth since the inaugural edition in 2022, was held in Addis Ababa last month.  Hundreds of participants, including policy makers, the executives of EV companies, scholars, and green mobility financiers gathered at the UNECA headquarters for the summit.

Dozens of Kenyan EV users drove over 1,500 kilometers from Kenya directly to Addis Ababa to take part, making their journey the first recorded cross-border EV convoy.

Participants from all over Africa, also visited Ethiopia’s EV assembly factories, infrastructure and charging stations, one day before the summit commenced.

EV adoption in Ethiopia has flourished in light of various policies geared towards a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies. EVs accounted for 60 percent of all vehicle imports in 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Transport and Logistics.

The number of EVs in Ethiopia also jumped from 7,000 in 2022 to over 115,000 currently. Even under a constrained scenario, Ethiopia could see over one million EVs on its roads by 2040. But strong policy execution can raise this figure to 1.7 million, according to a Ministry document.

The document also states that Ethiopia has become an EV frontrunner on the continent, alongside South Africa, Morocco, Rwanda, Kenya and Nigeria. More recently, the government rolled out plans for vehicles running on compressed natural gas (CNG) following the launch of a large natural gas production project in the Somali Regional State earlier this year.

Officials at the Ministry want to double down on the progress, harboring ambitions to erect more than 2,200 charging stations across the country and introduce subsidies, tax credits, and credit lines to make EVs more affordable.

Bareo Hassen is a state minister at the Ministry of Transport and Logistics, which is spearheading Ethiopia’s shift from fuel cars to EVs, under overarching political commitment and decision-making from PM Abiy Ahmed. In this interview with The Reporter, Bare offers his reflections on the country’s new transportation path. EXCERPTS:

The Reporter: Ethiopia has been crafting a new EV policy and strategy. What are the contents?

Bareo Hassen: Ethiopia’s EV strategy was recently approved by the Council of Ministers and launched. We are currently awaiting a printout of the document. Once we receive this, we will embark on implementation by on-boarding different organs, and mobilizing resources.

The strategy identified five flagship projects. One is quality control, the others are professional human development, awareness creation, financial and non-financial incentives. Very soon we will unpack all of these and communicate to all stakeholders.

Regarding local value addition in EV production and localizing EV batteries, are there projects in the pipeline currently?

We have plans, and we have local capabilities. We have lithium, cobalt and other mineral resources. What we need is investment and technology. We are working on that scope too, to start EV battery technology using our own lithium resources.

In the next five years, hopefully we will have our own EV batteries.

The government recently ordered existing vehicle assembly plants to shift towards EV production following its ban on the import and local manufacture of combustion engine vehicles. However, through their lobby group, assemblers have complained that they have invested in their factories for years and are unable to shift to EV production lines at once. What is your take on this?

Two years ago, we banned fuel cars in Ethiopia and we sustain the scope of that decision without any problems or disruptions. The same is true for local assemblers. We have mechanisms in place. We have introduced attractive incentive packages for EV transitions, including for the smooth transition of existing fuel car assembly factories to EV production lines.

Domestic assemblers argue that assembling EVs locally is not as profitable as importing fully assembled EVs. They say this comes down to government incentives, like tax breaks, for the import of EVs. How do you respond to their concerns?

I advise you to go to the markets, and ask the end users. The impact is by far very different. EV is without any current maintenance cost, and also fuel expenses, EV is much cheaper and suitable for end users. The economic benefit of EVs is much greater than fuel cars. EVs are sustainable, environmentally friendly, and noise free. You can make a comparative analysis and prove this.

Does Ethiopia intend to use the recently inaugurated natural gas project in the Somali region to produce compressed natural gas (CNG) to be used as fuel for vehicles?

Exactly. We have identified the potential of the natural gas project, that it can be used by the transport and logistics sector. We are conducting research on it. Evidence-based decisions will be made. We are considering CNG vehicles and trucks now.

CNG is typically used as a replacement for benzene. Experts say vehicles, especially heavy trucks, which use diesel can not make use of CNG. The government recently prohibited the import of combustion-engine trucks, seeking to replace them with electric or CNG alternatives. How would this work?

CNG can be used for heavy duty trucks, city buses, automobiles and others. The world is using it. It is not a unique scenario for Ethiopia. So we’ll use our best option, based on our best potential capabilities.

How much do you estimate the monetary returns of the energy transition in the transport sector will amount to? By shifting from fuel-based cars to clean energy cars, how much will Ethiopia benefit?

Currently, we are spending over six billion dollars annually to import fuel. Replacing this means we can re-funnel that money into different mega projects. The energy shift is crucial for economic growth of the country.

What are the outcomes expected from the Africa e-mobility week, which is being held in Addis Ababa?

The objective is to create common ground and collaboration across African economies to elevate our visions of e-mobility. The transport and logistics sector is one of the pillars of green development. Ethiopia is working on energy independence and also environmentally-friendly transport and logistics.

Our strategies and policies are well communicated to our African brothers and sisters, in a bid to foster collaborations and share Ethiopia’s experience.

Our capital city, Addis Ababa is also working on its own EV transport infrastructure and a holistic urban smart transport system. Our corridor development is also designed to promote e-mobility. Addis Ababa has a well-tested calibre of smart mobility. This is also the reason it was chosen as the venue for the 2025 African e-mobility week.

How does e-mobility fit into Africa’s climate resilient development agenda?

It is obvious. Transport is crucial in Africa’s development. Hence, e-mobility, and having energy quality are essential to having a sustainable transport system, which in turn enables sustainable climate and environment. To this end, the standardization of e-mobilty must align with the standards of sustainable climate.

We are developing nations, hence, we must adopt a sustainable development path. Urban mobility is one of the pillars.

How are the government, private sector, financiers, and academics working in collaboration when it comes to e-mobility?

We are working with stakeholders from all walks. We are revisiting the scopes of our transport and logistics policies and strategies.

Currently, we have more than seventeen EV assembly factories in Ethiopia. Most of them are local. Our investors are investing in active urban motilities too. They are building charging facilities. They are working on after-sale service, and also technical parts and technology-based solutions. So our strategy and policy capitalizes on engaging our private sector, and all stakeholders.

What are the main challenges to the e-mobility initiatives in Ethiopia as well as across the continent?

One of our major challenges is public charging stations. In Ethiopia, we have identified the need for more than 2,300 charging stations. Currently we have 100-and-something. We are collaborating with the private sector, municipalities, regional governments, organizations and SOEs like Ethio telecom, to maximize the number of EV charging stations.

We are also working on domesticating EV value chains. We are incentivizing the private sector to get involved in semi- and fully-knocked-down EV assembly and supply, as well as spare parts and EV batteries.

Local value control is also considered an important aspect of our EV strategy. Capital is also another challenge. So we are trying to attract as much investment into the sector as we can.