In the last decade, Kenya has become a desired destination for investors in e-mobility and its technology.
The electric vehicle battery has undergone many technological advancements. These include chemistry changes aimed at increasing energy density and other metrics like the weight and size of battery packs. The changes make the batteries manageable and improve their safety.
Furthermore, companies that offer battery leasing services can install IoT SIM cards in the batteries. These cards provide location data thus enabling asset tracking. The battery also has a BMS (Battery Management System) that can monitor the state of health as the battery is in use.
All the data is collected on a management platform. It ensures that customers only get healthy batteries in their vehicles. Due to the tracking capabilities the technology can be used to locate the owners of used batteries that fall in the wrong hands or are dumped in the environment.
Automated battery-swapping stations in Nairobi and its environs have enabled a leading battery service company to reduce its operation costs as no human intervention is required. Automation through a mobile app interface, USSD code, QR code, or RFID enables a battery swap in less than two minutes.
The swap stations are easy to locate using the company’s mobile app and can easily be relocated to areas with high demand. The agility of these compact and user-friendly swap stations improves the customer experience and mitigates the issue of range anxiety that is prevalent in the electric motorcycle space.
Another start-up has developed a Pay As You Go (PAYGO) system after discovering that many of its customers couldn’t afford the full battery swap fee. The PAYGO solution allows users to purchase energy from the fully charged battery at intervals. This is done through a mobile money wallet. While proving this concept, the company noted that 95 percent of their clients topped up for less than a full battery swap cost. This simply means that the full battery swap fee of approximately Sh200 is beyond the reach of most of their clients.
This technology can be adopted by OEMs that are interested in allowing their customers to purchase energy according to their economic situation. Indeed, this is a game changer that provides an opportunity for interoperability of batteries and infrastructure sharing. This has a ripple effect on the increased adoption of e-mobility.
For insurance companies, the actuaries will be thrilled to learn more about the role of technology in risk management. Statistics show that the majority of boda boda traffic accidents are due to speeding. Well for electric motorcycles, speeding is a thing of the past. Technicians can programme the vehicles controller software and limit its speed. This tamperproof innovation can also be used by regulators in the industry. An extra layer of security on the tracking of the batteries and vehicles using IoT cards is also a selling point.
As the e-mobility industry moves from its infancy, it would be interesting to see the role of technology especially in the manufacturing of four wheelers. AI controlled robots can increase the speed of manufacturing while promoting efficiency. Vision cameras and other technology can improve the quality control of vehicles by reducing defects.
The writer is an e-mobility champion
