Project launch: E-mobility in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is poised to experience rapid economic growth in the coming years. Large jumps in transport demand are expected, along with sharply increasing motorisation rates, as African population, prosperity and consumer purchasing power grows. The continent’s vehicle market is currently dominated by conventional combustion engine vehicles – predominantly imported. This reliance on internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles is a path dependency with significant drawbacks, including high petroleum import costs; poor urban air, with its many hazards to human health; and substantial climate-damaging greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If present trends continue, the carbon emissions of the African transport sector are projected to double by 2050, the International Transport Forum (ITF) concludes.

The global boom in e-mobility offers African countries the opportunity to tap their country-specific advantages in renewable energy and raw materials and to create high-quality jobs in domestic vehicle manufacturing. Embracing this potential will fuel sustainable economic growth while also contributing to climate protection. In a best-case scenario, Africa could even avoid the widespread adoption of ICE vehicles, leapfrogging directly to climate-neutral transport based on e-mobility. For this purpose, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa are among the most important markets in sub-Saharan Africa. All three nations have been working to promote e-mobility and establish sustainable domestic value chains that provide well-paying jobs, not least for women.

Leapfrogging to Zero Emission Transport (LEAP) is a new project that aims to accelerate the electrification of vehicle fleets in sub-Saharan Africa by creating just, climate-conscious, and regionally harmonised conditions for the adoption of e-mobility. Importantly, LEAP will impart skills and build domestic capacity for achieving the transport-sector climate policy targets adopted by Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa as part of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In this connection, LEAP will promote transnational action plans for e-mobility while organizing international dialogues that enable sustainable investment in the region’s economies and people. Strengthening the African think tank landscape is an additional aim of the project. By developing momentum for policy action on e-mobility, the LEAP project hopes to prevent the massive GHG increase that would be inescapably associated with continued reliance on ICE vehicles. The switch to e-mobility will further the decarbonisation of the transport sector, allowing international climate commitments to be met, while also reducing oil imports and improving balance of trade.

LEAP is being funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN). The implementing organisations are the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Agora Verkehrswende, the Africa E-Mobility Alliance (AfEMA), the Conseil Exécutif des Transports Urbains Durables (CETUD), Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 

The project’s political partners are the South African Department of Trade Industry  and Competition; the Senegalese Ministry of Infrastructure, Land Transport Air Transport; and the Kenyan Ministry of Investment, Trades and Industry. The project will run from 2025 to 2029.