urban mobility

Have you read?
Kenya: Electric Motorcycles, Three-Wheelers More Popular Than Cars

What does this mean for Africa
Let’s look at the production and consumption sides of how this new coalition might impact Africa in regard to how cities develop, automotive manufacturing, jobs, the economy, and the role of Africa in the global automotive market.  

Firstly, let’s look at the Production side of this potential impact. Currently over 70% of vehicles manufactured in South Africa are exported to Europe, which means that what the European market is demanding will impact South African exports. The same can be seen in Morocco, where around 80% of the 400,000 cars produced are sold to Europe, with France, Spain, Germany and Italy being the main destinations (all four of these countries have the potential to accelerate microcars in their countries due to the direction of travel for city development, what’s more 2 out of 3 of the companies forming the coalition are from these countries).  

The ban on the sale of Internal Combustion Engines in Europe by 2035 is an indicator for what further changes to European car habits will do. The 2035 ICE ban has forced many stakeholders across South Africa to rethink their automotive strategy as the EU Policy change can impact the country’s GDP, local jobs, local businesses, provincial economic development, and domestic consumption. If microcars take off and influence the types of cars being driven in Europe and across the world, this could have a similar effect on the South African automotive industry as the 2035 ICE ban.  

Have you read?
Uganda And Vehicle Company Partner To Introduce Electric Motorbikes

On the Consumption side, this newly formed microcar coalition might influence the type of vehicles that will be driven in Africa. We have already seen smaller microcars being showcased and launched in South Africa. At the Smarter Mobility Africa summit hosted in South Africa in October last year, a company called Funky Electric demonstrated a smaller electric microcar. Last month in South Africa a company called City Blitz launched an electric microcar with a price tag of R199,900 (around $10,000 – $11,000). It’s no secret that Africa has the fastest growing cities when it comes to population, there are more and more people moving into the same location which creates challenges (and opportunities) around how space is being used. This could increase the demand for smaller microcars. By 2050 the OECD expect African cities to be home to an additional 950 million people.  

The current and future Automotive industry in Africa is important for the continent, in many ways, and the World Economic Forum recently shared a report suggesting that the African Free Trade Area can herald $12 billion growth for the continent’s automotive industry. It will be interesting to see how changes in habits around the car sizes people drive across the world will influence the African Automotive industry.  

Three representatives of the coalition founding companies attended a round table together at the Micromobility Europe Conference in Amsterdam: Oliver Ouboter, Co-Founder and COO of Microlino, Alain Di Duca, Founder and VP Business Development of Circle Mobility, and Dr. Anat Bonshtien, VP Business Development of City Transformer.

“We are going to revolutionise the future of urban mobility and reclaim cities for people, not for 2-ton cars”, said the three.

This topic and many other topics around integrated smarter mobility Africa will be explored during the annual Smarter Mobility Africa summit taking place 3-4 October 2023 in the Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Join us at Smarter Mobility Africa summit on 3-4 October 2023, and explore the global mobility transition through an African lens. 

REGISTER to attend!