Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
Costly batteries slow down Car & General electric tuk-tuk sales
Principal Secretary of the State Department for Energy, Alex Wachira (left), and Car & General Marketing Executive, Consolata Mungai, showcase one of the electric tuk-tuks during the 3rd Annual E-Mobility Stakeholders Conference and Expo at the KICC in Nairobi on May 5, 2025.
Car & General has announced that it has sold only 15 of the electric three-wheelers (tuk-tuks) it unveiled in the Kenyan market in February last year, marking an underwhelming sales performance that the firm attributes to a high cost of in-built batteries.
The company’s general manager in charge of trading George Rubiri told the Business Daily that the cost of a fixed battery has proved too high as it makes up around 50 percent of the price of the tuk-tuk, adding that the firm is in high gear to shift the model to a battery swap system.
“What we noticed is that our three-wheelers had a fixed battery and the cost of the battery was almost 50 percent the cost of the vehicle. So basically, if a three-wheeler is around Sh500,000, an electric one with a fixed battery will go for around Sh900,000 and this became a barrier for many investors,” said Mr Rubiri.
“So that didn’t work out very well because people weren’t willing to spend such sums especially when they put the investments against the expected returns. Right now, what we’re looking at is getting infrastructure in place so that people don’t have to buy the batteries.”
Mr Rubiri, however, decried the huge amount of investment needed to develop the infrastructure to support the intended battery swap model, citing the need for more power capacity as the three-wheelers are heavy and they carry more load compared to two-wheelers.
Car & General says it is at early-stage discussions with two undisclosed firms that will supply the needed batteries, with Mr Rubiri intimating that the partnership will bring on board oil marketer Vivo Energy whose Shell filling stations will act as battery swap points.
The diversified motor retailer had unveiled the electric three-wheelers in February last year as part of its expansion efforts into the green mobility business, after years of dealing in motorcycles.
Dubbed Piaggio Ape Electrik vehicles, the three-wheelers had been earmarked to be sold in two versions –Ape E-City FX Max for the passenger segment and Ape E-Xtra FX Max for cargo.
Piaggio Vehicles Pvt Ltd (PVPL), a subsidiary of Italian motor vehicle manufacturer Piaggio Group and the partnering firm in the Kenyan launch, is India’s leading maker of small commercial vehicles as well as a pioneer in three-wheeler electric mobility.
Car & General has been the sole appointed distributor of Piaggio three-wheelers in Kenya since 2002.
