Kenya’s electric vehicle market recorded 140 per cent growth in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, with 14,800 new electric vehicles registered nationally — a figure that, while modest in absolute terms, represents a structural inflection point that industry analysts say will be difficult to reverse.
The surge follows the full operationalisation of import duty waivers on battery electric vehicles, electric motorcycles, and EV components including charging equipment that were legislated in the Finance Act 2024 and came into comprehensive effect in January 2026. The waivers eliminate a 25 per cent import duty and an 8 per cent excise duty on qualifying EVs, reducing the landed cost of entry-level electric motorcycles by approximately Ksh 28,000 and the cost of small passenger EVs by as much as Ksh 350,000.
Two-Wheelers Driving the Numbers
The largest single component of EV growth is electric motorcycles — the boda boda segment that is central to Kenya’s urban transport ecosystem. Of the 14,800 EV registrations in H1 2026, 9,400 were electric motorcycles, reflecting the particular economic logic of electrification for boda boda operators: charging costs are significantly lower than petrol costs, maintenance requirements are simpler, and the vehicles are compatible with asset-finance models that several motor financiers have specifically designed for informal transport workers.
Roam Motors, the Nairobi-based EV manufacturer that produces its Air motorcycle from an assembly facility in the industrial area, has been the primary beneficiary of the boom. The company reports that monthly output from its Nairobi plant reached 620 units in June, up from 180 units per month at the start of the year. “The duty waiver didn’t just reduce prices — it shifted the psychology,” said Roam CEO Asjad Bhatti. “Boda riders stopped asking whether electric was possible and started asking which model to choose.”
Several Chinese EV brands — including Yadea, Aima, and Tailg — have also entered the Kenyan market aggressively since January, establishing distributor networks and after-sales service arrangements in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Eldoret. The competition has been broadly welcomed by the Kenya Electric Vehicles Association, which notes that price competition is driving down costs faster than policy alone could have achieved.
Commercial Fleet Electrification Gains Traction
Beyond the two-wheeler segment, a more commercially significant trend is fleet electrification. Rooftop Energy and BasiGo, the Nairobi-based electric bus company, have expanded their fleet operations in Nairobi, with BasiGo reporting 47 electric buses now operating on the Westlands-CBD and South B-CBD corridors. Nairobi City County, under Governor Johnson Sakaja’s successor, has committed to sourcing only electric vehicles for its official fleet from 2027 onwards — a policy that will affect approximately 340 vehicles.
The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), which has been developing EV charging infrastructure at its petrol station partner network, now operates 118 public fast-charging points nationally. The company acknowledges that coverage outside Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu remains inadequate, describing range anxiety on inter-city routes as “the remaining structural barrier to passenger EV adoption in the private car segment.”
Charging Infrastructure and Grid Readiness
The infrastructure question is not merely one of location. Kenya’s electricity grid, while powered predominantly by renewable sources (geothermal and hydro account for over 90 per cent of generation), has long struggled with reliability in distribution. The Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) recorded 4.2 outage hours per customer per month on average in 2025, a figure that is improving but still creates uncertainty for both EV users and charging infrastructure investors.
Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi has told Parliament that the government’s Energy Transition Plan, which includes a Ksh 47 billion grid-strengthening programme financed partly by the World Bank, prioritises distribution reliability in the eight cities most critical to EV charging demand. Industry stakeholders say the grid investment is necessary but must be accompanied by regulatory clarity on third-party charging operator licences — a framework the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has been drafting since 2024 but has not yet published in final form.
Despite those constraints, the EV market’s 140 per cent growth rate has created a sense of momentum that is drawing new capital. Three investors announced EV-related ventures in Kenya in June alone: an assembly joint venture between a Kenyan autoparts firm and a South Korean EV maker, a Nairobi-based battery-swap network targeting boda boda operators, and a women-focused EV finance product from a Tier-2 microfinance institution. The market, for the first time, is beginning to feel competitive.
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