Above & Beyond: Lessons for Europe in resource efficiency and EV design & manufacturing with Kenya-based Opibus
Our Malmö studio recently got a new company car. The process dragged out far longer than it should have because we want to practice what we preach about driving positive change — which in this case means driving electric instead of combustion engines. Ultimately, however, we had to compromise on a hybrid because we couldn’t get a charging station installed near our office. Once again, doing convenience won out overdoing the “right” thing.
While those of us living in Europe might feel like we must constantly compromise on convenience in order to live more sustainably, our latest Above and Beyond talk with Albin T Wilson of Opibus showed us that there are plenty of places — and opportunities — where the “right” thing is also the “convenient” thing…at least when it comes to transportation.
Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Opibus designs and manufactures electric vehicles tailored to the African market, focusing on public transport vehicles and motorcycles. What we found particularly inspiring during Albin’s talk was how Opibus has built their business in a way that is seemingly very simple in theory but rarely achieved in practice: universal solutions to global problems still require local adaptations to truly offer any kind of value to the people using them.
🏍 Branching out of the traditional automotive market space
While the idea for Opibus was born out of a student project in Linköping, Sweden, the company currently operates in Kenya and 90–95% of the team is Kenyan. So why Africa? Simply put, Opibus feels that there are many reasons why East African markets are better suited for widespread electric vehicle adoption than more traditional American, Asian, or European markets (remember our inability to get a charging station near our office?).
For starters, many countries like Kenya must import both oil and used vehicles, which is costly and, ultimately, contributes to low automotive adoption. Moreover, countries in this geographical area have ready access to renewable energy. In fact, 86% of Kenya’s electrical grid is renewable energy, so deploying electric vehicles — even in rural areas — is feasible through microgrid systems.
Opibus believes that this combination of factors can help Kenya and other countries in East Africa leapfrog over manufacturing combustion engines vehicles and start directly with making electric vehicles instead. Albin pointed out that this wouldn’t be the first time that Kenya had leap-frogged over a middle-ground technology either. Hailed as an upcoming global Fintech hub, Kenya skipped credit cards and went directly to mobile payments.
What is refreshing about Opibus is that their business approach is exactly that — business. They’re not trying to act like saviors from the “developed” world bringing revolutionary technology to developing countries. They saw a missed opportunity and have built their business to address the specific needs of that opportunity.
🌍 Global technologies still require local considerations & adaptations
Speaking of specific needs, we were particularly enamored with the local consideration at the heart of Opibus’ design ethos — to make a durable product design for the market in the market. Albin focused most of his talk on electric motorcycles, which have to be imported into Africa as there are no African motorcycle manufacturers. Since these imported used motorcycles were not designed for African road infrastructure, they require frequent maintenance and customizations, which begs the question — why settle for subpar retrofit solutions when there’s an opportunity to design and produce tailored solutions?
To create a design ethos that caters to local needs, Opibus conducted research using local researchers to understand the use cases and cultural significance of motorcycles in Kenya. Unlike European or American notions of motorcycles as luxury, leisure vehicles, motorcycles function as utility tools in Kenya — transporting everything from people to goods. Consequently, the design considerations (and limitations) for this “motorcycle as a tool” connotation differ drastically from that of a ‘“motorcycle as an object of leisure.”
With this in mind, Opibus has designed their electric motorcycles for easy swapping, splitting the battery in two to lower the initial cost of the bike as well as cut overall running costs. Their design considerations take into account common local adaptations to bikes, just attaching umbrellas and dirt guards during the rainy season to protect drivers from the elements. Such considerations really highlight that global technologies like electric motors — which theoretically could be manufactured and deployed anywhere in the world — still require localized details in their design.
🛠 “Everything is repairable”
When asked what we could learn from his experiences building a business in Kenya, Albin said “Everything is repairable. Use things until they’re done.” He explained further that the resource efficiency in Kenya is enormous compared to what he had experienced in Sweden.
This statement has really stuck with us and made us rethink how we view sustainability here in Sweden. According to a recent Pew study, the Swedes interviewed had little concern for how the climate crisis affects them personally. With the little perception of threat to how we live and our own well-being, it makes sense that our resource efficiency is comparably terrible thanks in part to greenwashing PR narratives and lack of infrastructure to support sustainable options like electric vehicles. Simply put, we’re not doing nearly as well as we credit ourselves when it comes to combating the climate crisis, and should use case studies from other economies to bring a much-need critical eye to our own methods.
Ultimately, the biggest takeaway from our talk with Albin was how Opibus’ business approach serves as a point of reflection for our own business model as well as those of the clients we work with. Rather than going down the rabbit hole of introducing a bunch of new products every year, how can businesses in Europe learn from what African companies like Opibus are doing and strive for more circular approaches when creating new product portfolios? After all, if we are going to use things until they’re absolutely exhausted, we have to build them to be that way in the first place.
Above & Beyond events are held internally for the Above team. The learnings and take-aways are written by Renee Semko Gonzalez and edited by myself. Thank you Albin Wilson for his valuable contributions. I can only hope that this article (and every other article we share) offers you as many ideas and inspiration as it has our team.
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