Ethiopia generates more than 96% of its electricity from renewable hydropower...

TIL

For many in Ethiopia, where salaries are often less than €1000 a year, the starting price of a new electric car — €17,000 ($19,700/3.2 million Ethiopian birr) — is steep. But taxi driver Abdurahman Ali is happy he made the switch. [...] "Before switching [...] every month I would spend 40,000-50,000 birr on fuel. Since switching to electric and charging at home, my monthly costs have dropped to about 5,000 birr, at most. That's a huge difference."

That's massive! Roughly, from €250 to €25 a month? Fuck, that's some fabulous news right there. Go on, Mr. Ali!

When will Madagascar get mad at gas car?

Wow, this is amazing. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

So this doesn't ban them wholesale. The article says it bans importing cars with gasoline and diesel engines.

Anyone know if this applies to 2 wheeled vehicles like 2 cycle mopeds or motorcycles?

Wow that is a major step. Hope they're ready for it .... seems amazing though.

I mean I still believe you could DIY build an electric car for like 5000€ pretty much out of bicycle parts. Even if it only goes 50kmh that would be enough for city travel.

Whaat?

Incredible if true!

Some personal insight having spoke to many people in the country. The article is really underplaying the bad condition of Addis Ababa's electric grid. Many people that live near the heart of the city still face multi-day blackouts. Anything outside of a few special tourist, hotel, and government office areas is constantly dealing with power issues.

A lot of it stems from the current administration's policies and priorities where a large swath of the citizen suffer for the sake of tourism and marketing Addis as the "Dubai of Africa". I fear this means that even the new dam coming into operation will not solve it's problems. The wage gap there is even more extreme and I fear this electric car push will further divide that gap.