Imagine a Friday evening sometime in the future, where a restauranteur aka Mama Put in rural Nigeria flips on her shop lights and pulls cold beers from the fridge as the evening crowd trickles in. Her old diesel generator sits dormant — today, power comes from a solar mini-grid, and it is cheaper and available 24/7.
Outside, an electric motorcycle soundlessly rolls in with today’s order of plantains from the market in the next community over. The EV pulls away, fumeless, to return to its charging station as customers enjoy a football match broadcast in the quiet, clear evening air.
In faraway urban Lagos, Mama Put’s contemporary sits on the balcony of her office building thinking about how life is good with her business now a step ahead, as there is improvement in the ease of doing business. As these scenes repeat throughout the country, electrifying small vehicles and charging them on a cleaner grid, there is reduced pollution and the associated human health impacts.
MAX’s Impact — Africa’s Reality
A MAX-certified driver transports a medium-sized bunch of plantains from Gbamu Gbamu to a neighbouring community market, where the seller can negotiate a higher price. These bunches can weigh as much as 20 kilograms. Cocoa beans, and cocoa-derived products, are also popular items transported on the E2Ws (electric 2-wheelers).
Another MAX certified rider takes a customer from the community centre to the A121 junction. This junction is the confluence of rural roads to many communities in the area, and it is a major hub. MAX’s drivers’ customers come here to catch buses to other cities, conduct business, and purchase goods that aren’t available in town. (Excerpts from RMI, 2022.)
— — — —
The bridge between MAX’s vision and the reality of her impact can seem as inconsequential as a motorcycle rider and/or farmer being able to transport plantains to a neighbouring community market.
However, this seemingly little impact is one of the seeds being sown that will germinate to make MAX a pacesetter in the African clean energy space and bring thousands into a better life.
In communities like Ibadan, Gbamu Gbamu and Abeokuta soonest, MAX has employed a business model using E2Ws and E3Ws in collaboration with clean-energy providers to test the possibilities and impact of clean transportation and energy in communities in Africa.
Based on these scenarios, there are no limits to the far-ending impacts poised by MAX. This goes to assert that if EVs can deliver mobility services that outcompete fossil-powered mobility in mini-grid powered communities, then introducing electric vehicles could boost the subscription to clean power and concurrently, the adoption of cleaner options and price reduction of clean mobility and power.
