Ethiopia goes electric

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]This country is going through an electric vehicle boom. Ethiopia is racing towards a purely electric future.

[00:00:07]The government banned the import of gasoline and diesel cars in 2024.

[00:00:12]A radical step motivated by soaring oil prices. There are now over 120,000 electric [music] vehicles on the roads in Ethiopia out of a total of 1.5 million cars in the country. Last [music] year, more than 60% of all new vehicle registrations were electric. In Germany in 2024, [music] that number was only 13.5% In Ethiopia, this share will be even higher in 2026 [music] as the country has since added more restrictions for conventional trucks.

[00:00:44]EVs are quiet, clean, and powered by hydropower because over 97% of Ethiopia's electricity comes from the renewable [music] resource. It isn't a smooth path, though. Nearly half of the population, [music] 63 million people, still lives without electricity and charging stations remain scarce, around 500 [music] in the whole country, most of them in the capital. Still, the momentum is powerful. Taxi drivers report saving up to [music] 90% on monthly energy costs after switching to electric. And new charging operators are popping up even if power outages remain [music] a challenge. If the pace continues, this is Africa's boldest move into a future of clean transportation.