Mbay Mobility Is Launching An All-Electric Taxi Financing Platform In Senegal

“M’Bay” means to domesticate in Wolof, the primary language in Senegal. The aptly named “Mbay Mobility” desires to assist domesticate and develop the inexperienced mobility sector in West Africa, beginning in Dakar Senegal. Mbay desires to play a key function within the transition to electrical mobility by being the primary mover within the electrical automotive sector in Senegal and within the wider West African area, which continues to be at a nascent stage of EV adoption.

Mbay is wanting on the whole ecosystem and dealing with key stakeholders, resembling insurance coverage companies, banks, authorities, worldwide donors, and garages in Senegal. Mbay has helped curate a complete e-mobility targeted insurance coverage bundle and acquired a 75,000 euro grant from the Netherlands to execute a upkeep coaching programme for technicians, which they carried out in collaboration with the Senegalese Ministry of Training and SolarTaxi Ghana. Mbay can also be working with the federal government and different companions to discover methods of incentivising the adoption of electrical mobility, particularly by changing the very excessive 70% import tax with taxes that solely kick in after the EVs are on Senegalese roads and producing financial savings for his or her customers. 

Picture from coaching session, courtesy of Mbay Mobility.

Picture from coaching session, courtesy of Mbay Mobility.

Two of the primary issues Mbay is tackling are rising air air pollution and carbon emissions, attributable to a lot of growing older inner combustion autos in congested cities. Basically, all of the vehicles on Dakar’s roads use low-quality fossil gas and contribute to about 2.2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, with a calculated social price of $97 million per yr. These numbers are rising quickly. Moreover, a quarter of infant deaths in West Africa are now related to air pollution. Air air pollution additionally results in different illnesses that result in elevated public well being prices, decrease studying outcomes in school, and lowered productiveness within the office. 

An older taxi in Dakar.

An older taxi in Dakar.

Growing older taxis are a number of the worst contributors to this air pollution. There are about 16,000 taxis in Dakar, Senegal, and though they account for lower than 5% of Dakar’s car inhabitants, they represent about 45% of the site visitors movement on common as they zoom by town all day searching for prospects. These taxis contribute at the very least 20% of the air air pollution in Dakar, so switching them to electrical would have enormous advantages for everybody within the metropolis.

Mbay imports and retails electrical vehicles, and the taxi business is certainly one of its key goal markets. Mbay says that its EVs will present engaging financial savings for EV taxi house owners, higher working situations for drivers, and higher consolation and safety for passengers. These EVs are additionally tailored for the native context, with greater floor clearance to cater to non-paved roads and domestic-plug charging to keep away from infrastructure constraints. Their vary is about 250 km, in keeping with the every day necessities of the common distances lined by taxis in Dakar. The typical taxi in Dakar does about 175 km per day, so the 250 km vary is greater than sufficient.

Mbay calculates that taxis switching to its electrical vehicles will save about $33 per day because of the decrease “fuelling”prices in addition to the decrease servicing and upkeep prices. This works out to about $12,000 in annual financial savings per automotive and about $150,000 over the lifecycle of the car within the taxi business.

Mbay additionally gives model new electrical vehicles, which will likely be a significant step up from the ICE taxi business that’s dominated by used vehicles — growing older ICE vehicles. To decrease the obstacles to entry, Mbay is working with banks and different monetary establishments to supply financing packages. Mbay will couple this with a geolocation and immobilization software program bundle in instances of non-payment/default. This PayGo perform deactivates vehicles at distance, enabling low-cost financing by lowering cost danger for banks. The banks are additionally on this mission, because it provides them a platform for financing inexperienced initiatives, in keeping with a few of their ESG targets and mandates.

The every day financial savings generated by Mbay’s EVs cowl the month-to-month funds and curiosity funds for the financial institution loans, so this could speed up adoption. However, in any other case, there are at present no incentives for electrical vehicles in Senegal. Mbay says if incentives resembling lowering the import taxes and duties had been launched, this could decrease the prices of the vehicles to the taxi house owners and speed up the clear transport revolution they’re attempting to set off. Mbay can also be providing home charging providers for its prospects.

Mbay’s consultations with drivers within the taxi business highlights a number of the challenges drivers and operators face. A driver who drives a 1995 Peugeot says, “I pay $17 per day to hire my automotive. As it’s over 25 years outdated, it isn’t very snug and wishes upkeep each Sunday. It sounds just like the MBAY automotive doesn’t want weekly upkeep and is far more snug, so I might love to change to certainly one of their vehicles.”

One other driver, who makes use of a 1998 Toyota, says, “It’s onerous being a taxi driver. Gas could be very costly and I pay half of the upkeep prices. I wish to use an Mbay EV so I can scale back upkeep prices and earn extra.”

One other driver added, “The air pollution could be very unhealthy for our well being. My youngsters have respiration issues. If I might drive a cleaner automotive, I might try this. I might simply cost the automotive at my residence”

Mbay’s work matches in properly with Senegal’s inexperienced growth plan Le Plan Sénégal Emergent Vert, which is in search of to advertise inexperienced development and sustainable growth.

Mbay can also be taking a look at increasing to Abidjan and Accra within the close to future, as soon as the scale-up in Senegal is properly underway. Mbay was based by Matthew Sellar, Thebean Gilfillian, and Stefan Heijboer.

These kind of financing platforms have nice potential to essentially rework the taxi business on this area in addition to rework the transport and mobility panorama ecosystem. Quite a lot of focus has been on electrifying the bike sector in a number of nations on the continent. Nevertheless, in nations resembling Senegal the place bike taxis are restricted in massive cities resembling Dakar, ICE vehicles are a significant section within the transport sector. There’s a massive alternative to enhance the standard of service by programmes that facilitate the financing of contemporary autos and within the course of decrease operational prices, thereby bettering incomes and reworking lives.

Photographs courtesy of Mbay