The first electric Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) in Kenya were flagged off at the Kenya International Conference in Nairobi, on Wednesday.

Transport PS Joseph Njoroge was accompanied by Kenya Power MD Rosemary Oduor and BasiGo CEO Jit Bhattacharya.

In a statement, Oduor said that the K6 electric bus from BasiGo would give operators a new alternative that is more affordable, convenient and clean.

“Citi Hoppa and Eastland Eagles are the pilot partners for this project. The buses will be plying the CBD to JKIA and City Stadium to Dandora route,” said Oduor.

The first electric bus was launched in Kenya in January 2022, courtesy of Swedish-Kenyan technology firm Opibus.

The bus was meant to significantly lower the cost of purchase rather than importing fully built electric buses as it has a superior performance compared to its diesel cars.

Opibus said the electric bus is suitable for use in Africa because of reliability, durability and pricing.

The bus is installed with a powerful motor to give it maximum torque, which improves performance while enabling the driver to accelerate more responsively.

Additionally, since the electric bus does not have a combustion engine or manual gearboxes, there are no oil or filters as well as gaskets that need to be changed.

According to the project coordinator Dennis Wakaba, several charging points would be installed with a mix of AC (slow) and DC (fast) chargers. Using the fast charger, the electric bus will be fully charged within an hour enabling seamless operations.