How to Make Transportation Quieter, Cleaner and Cheaper | Doreen Orishaba | TED

0:08 When you sit in your car or any car,

0:11 do you ever wonder how many parts that car is made of?

0:14 Anyone?

0:16 Oh, great.

0:18 Do you also ever wonder what does it really take to put all this together?

0:23 Anyone?

0:25 Oh, great.

0:27 Now let me get to it.

0:29 How many of you have ever built a car from scratch?

0:34 Oh, great, good to see you.

0:37 Absolutely.

0:38 And I’m also honored to say that I have, an electric one at that.

0:44 Growing up as a follower of four boys earned me

0:47 an early ticket to the fascinating world of speed and cars.

0:51 There's something thrilling, something very powerful about,

0:55 you know, the vehicles,

0:57 the elegance of the design, the engineering, putting it all together.

1:02 But what really excites me the most today is the future of mobility.

1:07 Electric mobility.

1:10 I was first introduced to the electric vehicle world

1:13 during my time as a student at Makerere University.

1:18 Kiira Motors of Uganda was the very first

1:21 company on this continent to dream beyond fuel.

1:28 In 2011, Kiira Motors built Africa's very first electric car.

1:34 Doesn't it look great?

1:37 And this is at a time when the rest of Africa

1:40 was not paying any attention whatsoever to the electric vehicle space,

1:43 or even the urgency of addressing the climate crisis.

1:47 I was privileged to join this team,

1:49 and we moved on to produce Africa's very first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

1:54 Would you buy that?

1:56 Audience: Yes.

1:57 Doreen Orishaba: Great.

1:58 And we also proceeded to build Africa's first solar electric bus prototype.

2:05 (Applause) As you can imagine, at that time,

2:10 we’re talking about more than 10 years ago,

2:14 some people used to think maybe this electric vehicle stuff,

2:18 these are toys for the Western world.

2:20 But for us, we were driven by the vision that Africa should

2:24 contribute to the future of electric mobility and not just be a consumer.

2:29 Electric buses are now a very prime opportunity.

2:33 Buses are the lifeline in African cities,

2:36 moving over 60 percent of the population every single day.

2:41 And public transport in most of the regions in Africa,

2:45 it's led by the private sector.

2:47 So we have electric mobility start-ups that are driving,

2:51 really, the vision of electric buses.

2:55 This is happening here in Kenya, in Rwanda, in Nigeria.

3:01 But at the end of the day,

3:03 despite all these efforts, scaling electric mobility is facing huge challenges.

3:12 Talk of range anxiety,

3:14 the high upfront cost of electric vehicles and limited charging

3:19 infrastructure is really slowing down the adoption of electric mobility.

3:23 But these challenges are not new.

3:25 They are the same hindrances that stopped

3:28 the electric vehicle from growing in the 1890s.

3:31 However, the times are different.

3:33 We cannot afford to wait.

3:35 The planet is telling us that we need to act really soon,

3:39 and we are proving that there is a way to overcome these challenges.

3:44 I am Doreen Orishaba, the Managing Director of BasiGo, Rwanda.

3:48 At BasiGo, we provide electric buses

3:51 as a cost-effective alternative to the diesel bus.

3:57 We started out here in Nairobi in 2022,

4:00 and we've scaled now into Rwanda with now

4:03 a total fleet of 77 buses between both countries.

4:07 And every single day,

4:08 we are enabling the commute of over 30,000 passengers between both countries.

4:14 (Applause) Thank you.

4:19 We've built this by overcoming some of these challenges.

4:23 Number one, we are cheaper than diesel.

4:26 Electricity in both Kenya and Rwanda is

4:29 locally generated from renewables like hydro and wind.

4:33 That not only makes electricity much cheaper, but also cleaner,

4:38 because remember that diesel is all imported here.

4:42 So electricity is cheaper, it's cleaner and it's more stable.

4:47 We design for the local needs.

4:50 Have you ever wondered what kind of specification do we need

4:53 for the bus to be deployed in any of these markets?

4:57 We do not make assumptions.

4:59 We pilot with a small fleet and then scale based on the local needs.

5:06 We're getting an optimized battery capacities,

5:09 the suspension systems, the drive systems,

5:12 and make sure that at the end of the day,

5:14 we are using the real-life route data in order to scale.

5:19 I recall when we were doing the market survey in Rwanda,

5:23 one of the top questions that we always received was,

5:27 "Are you sure your electric bus will be able to handle Kigali's Hills?"

5:32 It's been 18 months now of our operation and that question is now history.

5:37 As you can see, the bus is able to go up that hill.

5:40 (Applause) We equip our buses with high-torque

5:46 motors for the steep inclines and regenerative

5:49 braking for the descent to be able to harvest the energy back into the battery.

5:55 And then this boosts the efficiency of our buses

5:58 as well as minimizing the brake wear.

6:02 One thing that really excites me about our Nairobi fleet

6:06 is we are locally assembling these electric buses right here.

6:11 (Applause) I hope each of you has had a chance to ride on the bus,

6:18 and we hope that you like it.

6:21 These buses have been built with lots of love and passion.

6:25 And you know, local assembly not only helps reduce the cost,

6:29 but we are enabling to build the critical local

6:34 manufacturing capacity on the planet while also creating jobs.

6:39 At the end of the day, it's going to be about, what can we all do together?

6:44 How do we handle the range anxiety?

6:47 We are building up charging infrastructure.

6:51 Let me ask you, what's your dream car?

6:53 Did you ever think about, "Oh, now that I'm buying the car,

6:56 I also need to build a gas station for it." Right?

7:00 No one ever thinks about that.

7:02 It should be no different for the electric vehicles.

7:05 As BasiGo, we go out and build the charging infrastructure,

7:09 we have a dedicated charging infrastructure team

7:12 that identifies and builds out the charging stations.

7:15 We handle all the permitting, all the compliance requirements,

7:19 so that our partners do not have to do that.

7:22 And we've built stations in strategically

7:24 located places right near the bus routes.

7:28 At our stations, we're able to recharge our buses

7:30 in about one and a half to two hours,

7:33 removing this entire burden from the operators.

7:37 Think about service and maintenance.

7:39 We take this burden away from the operator as well.

7:43 You know, new technology can be intimidating, right?

7:46 Especially when there is no local available capacity to be able to support that.

7:51 So as BasiGo, we have set up service centers in both Kenya and Rwanda,

7:56 fully equipped with trained staff, specialized tools,

8:01 as well as part inventory to minimize the downtime of these buses.

8:06 However, our biggest innovation is in the financing of these buses.

8:13 We provide the buses through a lease model that we call Pay-As-You-Drive,

8:18 taking away the need for the operators to invest heavily at the start.

8:26 I've seen firsthand the transformation that electric

8:29 mobility is bringing to Kenya and Rwanda.

8:32 The smiles and the awe of the passengers as they experience the BasiGo bus.

8:37 A ride so quiet and yet so revolutionary.

8:40 The relief of the operators being able to scale

8:44 without being choked by the heavy bank loans.

8:48 But I'll be honest and say, is it a smooth ride?

8:52 Perhaps not.

8:53 We're experiencing different challenges,

8:57 right from product iteration to the flooding

9:00 that we recently faced here in Nairobi,

9:02 which is a direct threat to our operation

9:04 because of where our batteries are placed.

9:07 But then it's a reminder of why we are doing this.

9:11 Climate change.

9:12 And I'll be honest and say, at the end of the day,

9:15 we wouldn't trade those experiences for anything else.

9:18 It is what's bringing us together as a team.

9:23 Given where we are, Africa really has the potential to be

9:30 able to lead in this electric-mobility movement across the globe.

9:37 Think about here in East Africa, our electricity is over 90 percent renewable.

9:44 That means deploying an electric vehicle here has

9:47 much greater impact than anywhere else in the world.

9:51 One of our electric buses replacing a diesel bus enables

9:56 the mitigation of up to 50 tonnes of CO2 every single year.

10:02 That is five times more than what the Tesla is able to mitigate in California.

10:08 And what is that speaking to?

10:11 Africa has already proven that, you know,

10:14 we are able to lead in electric vehicle mobility.

10:18 We do not have to follow the path of fossil fuel that we followed before.

10:24 We don’t have to catch up on the electric vehicle mobility movement.

10:28 We can actually lead this.

10:31 So far, we have proven that, you know, zero-carbon transport is possible.

10:35 It's viable here in Africa with the greatest environmental impact,

10:41 with greater social impact and with no government subsidy.

10:47 (Applause) Africa definitely has the potential to be able to lead in some

10:58 of these other sectors that were previously stated

11:00 to be out of the reach for us.

11:04 I hope you will be on board as we make this a reality.

11:08 (Swahili) Thank you.

11:09 (Applause)