Recently Roam announced its relocation to a new 10,000-square-meter facility, now called Roam Park. The facility will house the company’s headquarters for its electric motorcycle production lines and battery labs.
“Right now, we’re focusing on Kenya, which is a huge market as I mean, every month there are 30,000 motorcycles registered in Kenya alone. But we are looking at partnerships in the East African region and we’re doing pilots there as well. The increased demand of electric motors comes as no surprise from Kenya,” according to Albin Wilson, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Roam.
The new premises will have an annual production capacity of 50,000 motorcycles upwards that will be reached in a couple of years. The investment into the new facility is part of the company’s effort to scale up commercial mass production of the Roam Air as well as improve efficiency.
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“Kenya has a lot of problems with pollution, local emissions that in Kenya alone kill 18,000 people prematurely. Also, the biggest driver of this demand is fuel prices that have skyrocketed and battery prices, as you probably know, are dropping every year. I mean just recently we saw a battery price drop of 15 percent,” says Wilson.
The new premises will also combine the production, distribution, and storage operations under one roof, creating a technology hub and reducing the company’s overall carbon footprint.
Bigger and Better for Roam in Kenya
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Recently Roam announced its relocation to a new 10,000-square-meter facility, now called Roam Park. The facility will house the company’s headquarters for its electric motorcycle production lines and battery labs.
“Right now, we’re focusing on Kenya, which is a huge market as I mean, every month there are 30,000 motorcycles registered in Kenya alone. But we are looking at partnerships in the East African region and we’re doing pilots there as well. The increased demand of electric motors comes as no surprise from Kenya,” according to Albin Wilson, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Roam.
The new premises will have an annual production capacity of 50,000 motorcycles upwards that will be reached in a couple of years. The investment into the new facility is part of the company’s effort to scale up commercial mass production of the Roam Air as well as improve efficiency.
Have you read?
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“Kenya has a lot of problems with pollution, local emissions that in Kenya alone kill 18,000 people prematurely. Also, the biggest driver of this demand is fuel prices that have skyrocketed and battery prices, as you probably know, are dropping every year. I mean just recently we saw a battery price drop of 15 percent,” says Wilson.
The new premises will also combine the production, distribution, and storage operations under one roof, creating a technology hub and reducing the company’s overall carbon footprint.
Building local capacity
Currently, Roam has more than 150 highly skilled employees, within design, engineering and production to ensure that the electric motorcycles retain quality and affordability while building local capacity. The company’s growth is expected to continue in 2023 as the company continues to expand in East Africa to meet demand.
Roam’s new production facility operations are being led by Brett Mangel, Chief Operations Officer, who formerly worked at Tesla, where he was part of a team who successfully scaled-up the high-quality production for electric vehicles.
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“Moving ahead with this new production facility represents a significant step forward in bringing sustainable mobility solutions to Kenya. With some of the brightest talent, key partners, and access to a good infrastructure and logistics network, Roam is confident that this new location is a step in the right direction.” says Brett Mangel.
Mangel and Wilson are really proud of the team and the work they’re doing during this phase of expansion. They’re excited to see production efficiency, creation of new jobs and continual growth.
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Roam’s success has been continuous and it’s accredited to leveraging on what’s readily available within the industry. “Leverage the supply chain that already exists across the world. I think that’s one of the biggest things and always try think of what the users really need and optimise for that because a lot of people will design for these huge use cases but I think we just need some more products that address different issues, right, instead of having a one solution fits all,” according to Wilson.