{"id":157908,"date":"2023-02-13T22:22:22","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T04:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/electric-buses-are-driving-a-silent-revolution-in-nairobi"},"modified":"2023-02-13T22:22:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-14T04:22:22","slug":"electric-buses-are-driving-a-silent-revolution-in-nairobi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/electric-buses-are-driving-a-silent-revolution-in-nairobi","title":{"rendered":"Electric buses are driving a silent revolution in Nairobi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/electric-buses-are-driving-a-silent-revolution-in-nairobi.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Electric buses could help solve the problem. Today Bhattacharya is the CEO and co-founder of BasiGo, a mobility startup racing to electrify the city\u2019s buses. The company is not alone. Swedish-Kenyan electric vehicle manufacturer Roam also has its eyes set on Nairobi\u2019s mass transport sector. Both are rolling out fleets of buses this year that could mark the start of a new chapter for city\u2019s famous matatu culture.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in Nairobi, Kenya, something improbable happened: a mountain appeared. To curb the transmission of the virus, authorities called on the city\u2019s thousands of private bus operators to cease trading. \u201cWithin three days, the air completely cleared,\u201d recalls entrepreneur Jit Bhattacharya. \u201cYou could see Mount Kenya \u2026 crystal clear,\u201d some 90 miles away.<\/p>\n<p>Bhattacharya also saw an opportunity. Kenya produces 90% of its electricity from renewable sources \u2013 mostly geothermal and hydropower \u2013 and has surplus grid capacity, yet it imports nearly all its petroleum fuels. What if clean energy could be channeled into the transport sector? Maybe it could help the city clean up its act. Maybe Mount Kenya could become a permanent feature for Nairobi once more.<\/p>\n<p>The Kenyan capital is home to over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cia.gov\/the-world-factbook\/countries\/kenya\/#people-and-society\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\">five million people<\/a>, and matatus, privately owned minibuses and shared taxis, \u201care critical to the way people in Nairobi get around,\u201d explains Christopher Kost, Africa program director at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. \u201cIn the city, we have 40% of trips on public transport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electric buses could help solve the problem. Today Bhattacharya is the CEO and co-founder of BasiGo, a mobility startup racing to electrify the city\u2019s buses. The company is not alone. Swedish-Kenyan electric vehicle manufacturer Roam also has its eyes set on Nairobi\u2019s mass transport sector. Both are rolling out fleets of buses this year that [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1497,31,17,1491],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-energy","category-policy","category-sustainability","category-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}