Electric vehicle ride-hailing brand NopeaRide is exiting the Kenyan market.
This, as a result, sees the grounding of the Nopea Ride fleet of electric-powered taxis which have been operating in the country (Nairobi) for 4 years.
Nopea Ride, which is owned by EkoRent Africa, started its operations in 2018 as Nopia Ride.
Eko Rent Africa has filed for insolvency in Kenyan courts.
“Following the announcement that our majority shareholder, EkoRent Oy, has declared insolvency in Finland, we are sad to announce that InfraCo Africa Limited the minority shareholder has now filed for the liquidation of EkoRent Africa Limited in the High Court of Kenya. This is due to the fact that EkoRent Oy was the principal financier of EkoRent Africa Limited and all the technical knowledge on the running of the business lay with EkoRent Oy,” a statement says.
Nopea Ride had become the poster child of Nissan’s electric Leaf compact hatchback, the company’s flagship electric vehicle which has been a pioneer in many aspects as far as electric vehicles go.
Early in the year, a viral image of Nopea Ride Leafs gathering dust at an undisclosed location lifted a lid into the troubles facing the taxi brand in the local market.
Nopea Ride’s operations had largely been limited to the Nairobi metropolitan area due to infrastructure challenges – the Nissan Leafs require a charging network which is hard to come by in other parts of the country.
“Since the NopeaRide launch 5 years ago, we have imported 70 Nopea electric vehicles to Kenya that had driven more than 4 000 000 kilometers by June 2022 saving over 650 tons of CO2 emissions. NopeaRide also operated the largest electric vehicle charging network in East Africa,” Nopea Ride says in a statement announcing its departure from the Kenyan market.
Electric vehicles are just getting started in the country.
Just the other day, power producer Kenya Electricity Generating Compay (KenGen), launched its first four electric vehicles for its own use as it seeks to transition from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric ones.
The power generator already has two electric vehicle charging stations in the country – one in Nairobi and another one in Naivasha. It plans to increase the number to five by the end of the year with Murang’a, Embu and Kisumu set to join the firm’s charging network. The company plans to have at least 30 charging stations across the country over the next one year for its use.
Power producer Kenya is already constructing its pilot chargers as it dips its fingers into the world of providing the necessary infrastructure to power the country’s transition to electric cars.
