Owners of malls, factories, gated communities, and apartments will be required to reserve at least five percent of their parking space for charging electric vehicles (EVs) as the government continues with its green agenda, a new proposed construction code states.
According to the National Building Code, 2024, which seeks to define the country’s approach to construction and development, commercial buildings and multi-dwelling units will be required to have charging ports for electric cars.
“An owner of a commercial building or multi-dwelling unit shall designate at least five percent of the parking spaces for charging electric vehicles,” reads the Code.
“The parking spaces referred to in sub-paragraph (1) [above] shall be clearly marked and be equipped with charging infrastructure installed in accordance with IEC 62196 (Plugs, sockets-outlets, vehicle connectors, and vehicle inlets – conductive charging of electric vehicles),” adds the Code, which shall come into operation one year after its publication.
It was unveiled by the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing, and Urban Development and published in the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 36 on February 20, 2024.
The requirement will affect commercial buildings, including malls, factories, complexes, hospitals and petrol stations, which tend to have huge vehicular traffic.
An electric vehicle is plugged into a charging station in TJ&U garage in Nairobi, Kenya on May 24, 2023.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Dowgate Properties is among the first real estate firms to set up an electric vehicle charging station in a shopping mall in Naivasha in 2022 as it sought to take advantage of the growing uptake of electric cars.
In February, electric vehicles infrastructure firm Spiro partnered with Petrocity, an oil marketing company, to set up battery swapping stations in the latter’s outlets.
The momentum for ownership of electric vehicles has been building up as part of the shift towards e-mobility owing to the unpopularity of internal combustion engines (ICE) and the rising price of fossil fuel.
Data from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) shows that the number of electric vehicles (EVs) and motorcycles in Kenya increased by 729 units between February and June last year to 2,079 as the popularity of EVs grew.
However, the development of charging infrastructure for EVs has been slow due to the high cost of electricity.
BasiGo, an electric bus company founded in 2021, has sold 19 electric buses to public transporters. The company also operates several EV charging stations across Nairobi.
Electricity distributor Kenya Power says it is ready to work with electric mobility firms by supplying power for charging the batteries. The utility firm has also been in the market seeking to procure electric motorcycles and vehicles as it shifts to clean energy.
The shift towards EVs led to the introduction of a cheaper special tariff for EV charging for the first time in April last year in the power tariffs that were approved by Epra.
As part of its plan to reduce carbon emissions, the government plans to promote the manufacture of electric motorbikes through public-private partnerships (PPPs).
In the medium term, the government intends to spend Sh50 million on the project, which includes the manufacture of electric boda boda and the development of charging infrastructure.
