Swedish electric bus company Roam Limited, on Wednesday, October 19, announced new routes targeting Nairobi residents in an expansion plan.
The buses will ply Thika Superhighway, picking and dropping off passengers along that busy road, including Allsops, Roysambu and Ruiru, among others.
They will also operate along Mombasa Road and Waiyaki Way to improve urban mobility in Nairobi.
Currently, Roam buses run their operations from Fire Station Lane in the Central Business District to Juja in Kiambu.
Fare charges for those routes and specific commuting points will conform with other Public Service Vehicles (PSVs).
"At Roam, we aim to guarantee access to comfortable, equitable and reliable public transport to shift the masses to electric public transport in Nairobi," Dennis Wakaba, Project Coordinator, stated.
According to the Swedish-Kenyan-based company, the buses carrying a capacity of 77 passengers will operate daily.
Roam also intends to deploy over 100 buses in its bid to revolutionise public transport in the country. The buses are equipped with a 384-kWh battery which covers over 360 kilometres on a single charge.
Vehicles take up to two hours to fully recharge at the stations fitted at Roam warehouses.
To improve the uptake of electric motor vehicles in the country, Kenya Power announced plans to install electric car chargers in Kenyan homes across the country.
On August 2, the utility firm invited electronic companies to help them implement E-Mobility Network Infrastructure System (ENIS). Nairobi and Nakuru were listed among the target counties in the pilot programme.
"The system will make it easy and simple for customers to be billed and for them to make payments for the charging services. The system will support multiple payment channels, which include mobile money, E-Wallet, banks and credit card.
"Additionally, ENIS will allow the customer to seamlessly manage and monitor their services from within their customer engagement platform while at the same allow Kenya Power to have an end-to-end visibility of the entire ENIS ecosystem," Kenya Power stated.
According to experts, the rollout of electric vehicles is key to addressing fuel shortage problems and even tackling air pollution in the country.
The rollout also aligns with the country's plan to introduce Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system to ease congestion in the city.
