BasiGo delivered 100 electric buses in Kenya and Rwanda

To date, BasiGo has put 100 electric buses on the roads in Kenya and Rwanda. As reported, BasiGo aims to reach the 1,000 electric bus mark by 2027. This path is politically supported by the Kenyan government's ambitious eMobility targets.

The company BasiGo began series production of its E9 Kubwa electric buses in Kenya in 2024 and announced at the time that it intended to produce 1,000 units for the East African market within three years. The main player here is the nine-metre-long E9 Kubwa midi electric bus for up to 54 passengers, which, according to BasiGo, was developed for Kenya but contains an important component from China: CATL supplies the LFP cells for the 210 kWh battery. With a charging time of less than two hours, the E9 Kubwa is expected to be able to cover up to 400 kilometres per day; however, this daily mileage includes a charging stop.

BasiGo CEO Jit Bhattacharya said last year that his company wanted to create 300 jobs in production in Kenya. “We shall be assembling 20 buses every month and the orders are many. We intend to work round the clock to increase the number, because the demand may rise with time,” Bhattacharya said at the time. BasiGo is a company founded in 2021 and headquartered in Nairobi, whose main business is leasing electric buses to local bus companies. To this end, the company initially imported fully or partially assembled electric buses from BYD. However, the desire to manufacture its own electric buses quickly arose.

This move is supported by the government: Kenya wants to make rapid progress in electrifying its public transport system. Kenya’s Minister of Trade, Rebecca Miano, attended the opening of the BasiGo factory last year. She reiterated the government’s goal for all public transport buses in the country to be electric by 2027.

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