Trainings in Kigali
On March 15, 2024, SOLUTIONSplus organized an engaging participatory workshop on electric bicycles at the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT). The Urban Living Lab Center presented findings from the SOLUTIONSplus e-bicycle project and facilitated discussions on the future of e-bicycles in Tanzania. The morning session focused on strategies to boost e-bicycle adoption, with cyclists, DIT students, and staff discussing ideal design features for the delivery market, creating a maintenance and repair ecosystem, and raising awareness about cycling. Female participants emphasized the need for user-friendly frames for women. In the afternoon, the Urban Living Lab Center trained FASTA cyclists on a new booking app to streamline operations and attract more customers, providing smartphones to enable app usage. Working groups then offered recommendations to enhance FASTA's business model. Key lessons for Kigali include the importance of inclusive design, community engagement, support ecosystems, technology integration, and collaborative efforts with educational institutions and cycling cooperatives.
Energizing Dar es Salaam: E-Bicycle Workshop Yields Insights for Kigali
Lessons Learned for Kigali
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Inclusive Design: Prioritizing user-friendly designs for women can enhance adoption and usability.
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Community Engagement: Direct involvement of local cyclists and students generates practical insights and fosters a sense of ownership.
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Support Ecosystems: Establishing robust maintenance and repair networks is crucial for sustainability.
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Technology Integration: Implementing digital tools like booking apps can significantly improve operational efficiency.
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Collaborative Efforts: Partnerships with educational institutions and cycling cooperatives drive innovation and practical solutions.
Second Africa E-Mobility Forum
Date: 13-17 May 2024
Venue: Pullman Dakar Teranga Hotel, Dakar, Senegal
Main organizers: SOLUTIONSplus, UITP, UN Environment, Urban Living Lab Center (ULLC), Wuppertal Institute (WI), UN-Habitat, ITDP
The First Africa E-mobility Forum was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in March 2023 and brought together around 100 delegates from over 20 African cities with financiers and companies working on the transition to electric mobility in the region. A lot has happened in the e-mobility space on the continent since then! This year’s Forum in Dakar, Senegal will build on the outcomes and connections established at the first edition and expand the range of topics, companies and countries participating. The primary goals of the forum are to:
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Bring together government officials from relevant public sector institutions to connect and enhance their knowledge of e-mobility
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Connect public and private sector entities working on electric mobility on the continent to enhance their mutual understanding
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Showcase private sector innovation in electric mobility
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Connect financiers with companies that need financing for electric mobility projects
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Share country and city-level experiences with developing and implementing electric mobility projects, in particular, those developed under the EU-funded project SOLUTIONSplus
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Learn about the link between gender and electric mobility
In combination with the Forum, the UITP Academy is offering its in-person training programme on Procurement, Planning & Funding of Electric Buses giving a comprehensive overview on how to procure, plan and fund electric buses: from the setting of a long term city strategy in terms of energy transition to the definition of a charging strategy and the choice of technology and all the way to the procurement and the implementation and operation of the system. This training will give an insight into urban bus networks, importance of building sustainable infrastructure, and present learnings from successful major electric bus system procurement, implementation and financing. The training programme is ISO29990:2010 certified – the standard for learning services for nonformal education and training.
Peer-to-Peer Exchange on Electric Three-Wheelers
Kochi, Dar es Salaam & Kigali
The SOLUTIONSPlus and the Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies (DTEE) projects organised on the 11th of July 2022, a peer-to-peer exchange on three-wheelers between city decision-makers, academia, industry players, start-ups, and non-international organisations. City and transport practitioners from Kochi (India), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Kigali (Rwanda) had the chance to exchange thoughts about ongoing pilots to introduce electric three-wheelers as feeder services integrated with mass transit solutions.
Key findings from the introduction of electric auto-rickshaws as feeder services in Kochi
The introduction of electric motor rickshaws (hereafter “e-autos”) in Kochi started in 2017 with financial and technical support from UN-Habitat and Wuppertal Institute under the Urban Pathways project, and from GIZ’s Smart-SUT project. Initially aiming for 20 e-autos, the Kochi Municipality Corporation (KMC) decided to increase the impact of the pilot by scaling up to 100 e-auto rickshaws. The project brought together six drivers unions under one umbrella, the Ernakulam Jilla Autorickshaw Drivers Cooperative Society (EJADCS), which organised 100 drivers supporting the take-up of e-auto rickshaws. In addition, Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) and Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) were involved as technical partners.
Situation before the introduction of 100 e-auto rickshaws
About 4,500 fossil-fuelled autorickshaws (1 per 1,000 inhabitants in the Greater Kochi area) ply in the area. They provide commuting options and a considerable opportunity for decarbonising the sector. Introducing e-auto rickshaws is suitable for Kochi’s narrow streets and can provide feeder services to mass transit options such as Kochi’s Metro system, can substitute the need for a two-wheeler, provide an affordable option as a shared mode, and increase the income of drivers. There are a few electric rickshaws – using lead acid batteries and a lighter design than e-auto rickshaws – used for feeder services to the metro services in Kochi. However, e-three-wheelers are not yet as deployed as in Northern Indian cities such as New Delhi, where supportive e-mobility policies have enabled a strong development of electric three-wheelers.
Project components
Capacity building and training activities
Activities addressed awareness-raising on e-auto rickshaws, road safety and peer-to-peer learning from other cities on knowledge, skills and attitudes. In addition, several training sessions were held with drivers from the e-autorickshaws drivers association, transport departments, and other stakeholders to build trust and ensure ownership of the project by the drivers.
Business model identification
The business model was developed together with all key stakeholders.
EJADCS buys the e-auto rickshaws from the manufacturers, including batteries, and rents them out to drivers. The society receives 50,000 Rupees (ca. 628 USD) as down payments from KMC through the Urban Pathways and GIZ funding; 35,000 Rupees (ca. 440 USD) come from the Kerala state government; the rest of the cost is covered via a loan to the drivers. The leasing fees collected by the driver’s society are pooled and used for maintenance and management and for scaling up the digital application. KMC provides the land for the charging infrastructure at no charge.
Charging model
The drivers for the pilot have selected battery swapping. It reduces the insecurity of drivers leaving their vehicles charging overnight and creates new synergies and business models. In addition, lithium-ion batteries come with a 3-year warranty, so the battery swapping operators also have security with the batteries.
Charging equipment is provided by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEBL). KMC provides funding to the KSEBL for the implementation, and a memorandum of understanding was signed between KMC and KSEBL.
Maintenance and end-of-life
Vehicles are locally manufactured. Maintenance was one of the major components considered by EJADCS; manufacturers are tightly involved in the project, including via a maintenance agreement. Policies for the end-of-life management of batteries are progressively introduced at the national level; it is a process that takes time. With lithium-ion batteries, the chances of being reused as a second life as energy storage systems and recycled are higher.
Integration as feeder services
An app named AuSa is being developed to allow e-auto rickshaw drivers to make more trips and income. The app also offers the opportunity for planned trips, live tracking for commuters, and integration with the Metro services.
Key lessons
- Capacity building, awareness-raising and stakeholder engagement are critical for the buy-in of the transition to e-autos and the joint identification of business models.
- Subsidies may be used in areas where the e-autos market is still undeveloped to stimulate and make the vehicles affordable. It is expected that as technology grows, e-autos will become cheaper.
- A local manufacturing industry is important to support the maintenance of the e-autos, as well as the tight involvement of the manufacturers.
About the SOLUTIONSPlus and DTEE projects
The SOLUTIONSPlus project supports the uptake of different types of innovative and integrated electric mobility solutions across the globe. The project encompasses city-level demonstrations to test different innovative and integrated e-mobility solutions, complemented by a comprehensive toolbox, capacity development and replication activities. Demonstration actions take place in Hanoi (Vietnam), Pasig (Philippines), Lalitpur/Kathmandu (Nepal), Kigali (Rwanda), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Quito (Ecuador), Montevideo (Uruguay), Madrid (Spain), Nanjing (China) and Hamburg (Germany), followed by replication cities. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The Decarbonising Transport in Emerging Economies (DTEE) project supports transport decarbonisation in Argentina, Azerbaijan, India and Morocco. DTEE supports the development and provision of a framework allowing the quantitative assessment of transport mitigation actions while facilitating policy dialogue across all relevant stakeholders. The DTEE project also includes capacity-building activities such as training and stakeholder workshops, ensuring that partner institutions can work increasingly independently when revising nationally determined contribution (NDC) commitments in the five-year review cycle. Such activities will also allow assessment frameworks to be kept up to date with adequate recurring data collection. The International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) funds the DTEE project and the project is implemented jointly by the International Transport Forum (ITF) and the Wuppertal Institute (WI).
Masterclass on Business Model Develoment in Kigali
Background
A business model offers a logical framework for transforming technology potentials and features into economic outputs through consumers and marketplaces. Business models could be defined as a representation of a firm’s activities that generate products/services through a firm’s value proposition, value creation, and value capture elements.
A business model is composed of three primary components: (i) Value network, the organisation of the relevant parties; (ii) Value proposition, the product or service the company provides; and (iii) Revenue model, the pricing strategy the company employs for its customers.
Over the last few years, studies have shed light on emerging business models prioritising economic, environmental, and societal aspects in businesses to aid a sustainable economic and social transition.
We will delve into how to develop such business models in this master class.
Aims of the Masterclass
Students participating in this masterclass will be able to:
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Understand the concept of business models.
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Appreciate the need for business models.
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Learn about the various tools used in developing business models.
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Experiment with developing some business models.
Target group
The masterclass is open to participation from all engineering students at the University of Rwanda. It is particularly recommended for students in their final year of studies who will be embarking on using their engineering skills for employment.