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Starting out with an EV lease goes a long way in assuring consumers and fleet operators that they won’t be left stranded with a “dead battery” after a couple of years. Even though studies have shown EV batteries can pretty much outlast the life of the vehicle, and newer EV models are now getting insane battery warranties like Toyota’s new 1 million km battery warranty on the Lexus UX300e.

 

Getting people to switch in the long term will always come down to the money, and here at CleanTechnica we love just how the TCO calculations across several markets show how EVs rock! Now we can add some real data from an African perspective. Data is the new gold, so it is good to see Driveelectric Kenya showcasing just how good it is to drive EVs in Kenya. Drivelectric did a study over a 12-month period on the costs to drive a typical ICE vehicle in Kenya vs an EV. Although this data uses information from petrol and electricity costs from the time the study was carried out, it is still representative of the current costs. In the study, Drivelectric used a 1300 cc Nissan AD Station Wagon and a 2012 24 kWh Nissan Leaf.  In the study, they used a consumption of about 180 Wh per km for the Nissan Leaf. The average cost of electricity throughout the year was ksh20.91/kWh ($0.21/kWh) and the average price of petrol was ksh106 ($1.06). The mileage was obtained by taking the statistical statements on mileage from the geosat website, a tracker company. Office petty cash books were also used to get the money spent on the cars over the year on “fueling” costs. Data was also correlated with the fuel prices over the course of the year from data published by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority of Kenya, as well as Kenya Power, for the electricity tariffs.

 

With the Nissan Leaf not requiring much maintenance in the year of the study as compared with the ICE Nissan AD, the data will look even better when one looks at the total costs including maintenance and insurance. The savings from the fuel costs alone however, clearly show how strong the value proposition is for going electric in Kenya. It’s really good and also profitable to be driving on all those very clean electrons with 93% of Kenya’s electricity coming from renewable energy sources.