Africa Innovates Magazine - Flipbook - Page 42
In 2007, a team from Makerere University
participated in the Vehicle Design Summit
(VDS), a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) initiative, with the goal
of designing and producing the Vision 200
– a 5-passenger plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle, targeting the Indian market.
Makerere
University,
Africa’s
only
participant, was responsible for the
design and integration of the lowpower electronics and data networking
systems. At the end of this experience,
the Makerere team decided to launch a
project to design and build an electric
vehicle from Uganda, for Africa.
A STATE
START-UP LED
BY ENGINEERS
Following this was the creation of Kiira
Motors Corporation (KMC), a company
with 96% governmental shares and
Makerere University taking the rest. Its first
electric vehicle, the Kiira EV, was launched
in 2011 and following this success, Kiira
Motors set up a vehicle plant based in
Jinja District with an initial capacity to
produce 5,000 vehicles per year. The
plant was inaugurated in August 2021.
KMC developed Africa’s first hybrid
vehicle, the Kiira EVS, in 2014, and
Africa’s first solar electric bus, the Kayoola
Solar Bus, in 2016. In 2020, KMC put out
two solar electric buses in Kampala and
they plan to make 500 buses available for
public transportation in the metropolitan
region.
AFRICAN CHAMPIONS
The project team built Africa’s first electric
car in 2011, when the Center for Research
in Transportation Technologies (CRTT)
was created within the University. The aim
was to support research and innovation in
transportation technologies on land, air,
and sea, with specific emphasis on green
mobility solutions for Africa. The Kiira EV
was the first project implemented under
CRTT. It aimed to design and build a twoseater plug-in electric vehicle.
‘‘The Kiira Motors vehicles
have been developed to
emphasize the importance of
green mobility, particularly for
Urban Mass Transportation and
the role Africa can play in the
realization of decarbonized
urban mass mobility in the
context of a green and circular
economy.’’
Photo credit: KiiraMotors Corporation
42
SHOWCASING AFRICAN CLIMATE CHAMPIONS
E-MOBILITY
BUILDING AFRICA’S FUTURE
WITH UGANDAN AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY
