It was an honour and pleasure to deliver, in partnership with Chilekwa O'Brien from the ZAMBIA ROAD SAFETY TRUST, the techno-socioeconomic analysis of EV public bus networks in Zambia on behalf of the Zambian Electric Mobility Innovation Alliance (ZEMIA) at yesterday's workshop in Lusaka.
A shout-out to all those who worked to pull the event together. Special thanks to Co-Founder and President Kabayo Muhau, Co-Founder and Vice-President Kumbuso Joshua Nyoni, and Lead Consultant Legal McDonald Chilepa.
We threw a lot at those of you from the private sector, ministries and NGOs who were attendees. There was plenty of material to get through, and we only touched on the highlights! Routes, potential charging regimes, Total Cost of Ownership, carbon credit opportunities, grid availability and the ingredients for trials and pilot projects. A focus on the high utilisation of assets will help to build capacity, expertise, and business for the transformation of Zambia's no.1 mode of transport (by use).
The Q&A threw up some pertinent questions.
🗯️ Business models – is overnight charging in central depots/stations the right approach?
👁️ Security – how are the assets going to be protected?
♻️ Disposal – how will the vehicles be recycled at the end of life?
⚡ Power reliability – how will EVs be charged with low power availability?
🔇 Safety - what can be done to support pedestrians from being run over by new silent vehicles?
We provided responses that ranged from technical to predictive, based on how other markets are unfolding and solutions are being deployed.
A key message is that we don’t have all the answers yet and must work collaboratively to solve the challenges ahead.
What’s next?
The work undertaken to date is feeding into the next work packages, so follow ZEMIA and look out for upcoming tenders. A number of materials will be released in due course, including a findings and recommendations report and the interactive map demonstrated in the workshop. This is feeding into a roadmap. There's a lot more to cover—things have only just started. Stay tuned!
For those of you who are EV and charge point manufacturers, distributors, or providers of off-grid charging solutions, we’d encourage you to engage with key sector stakeholders, including ZEMIA.
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