With the current astronomical rises of Petrol and its followup effect on general household items prices, managing the cost of transportation has become a “must-do” especially in Africa. This is the industry that SolarTaxi, under the leadership of George Kwadwo Appiah, is trying to tackle. Pls read the article below to see the efforts of a startup company based in Accra assembling Electric Motorbikes. Am also proud to be an Advisor to this company.
Energy costs in recent times have become one of the key drivers of what has become the highest inflation in a generation. For example, on February 3rd 2022, the price of a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude oil hit a seven-year high of $91 a barrel, a spike of about 42% since December 2021 which at that time, was $64 a barrel, according to Trading Economics.
This was on the back of an upswing in demand for crude oil due to the reopening of economies after the lockdown period. Ghana, recorded as one of the few countries with the highest fuel prices, as of February 1st, 2022, had some pumps selling fuel for $1.16 a liter. According to Myjoyonline, the pumps recorded a 35% rise from the previous price, $0.8 per liter from the previous year in January 2021 to $1.08 per liter in Jan 2022.
While the price of fuel keeps rising due to the weak Ghanaian cedi and taxes on petroleum products at the pumps, the alternative, renewable energy, is relatively cheaper. For example, it costs $0.78 using an electric vehicle over 100 kilometers in Ghana compared to an internal combustion engine, which costs $7.82 over the same distance.
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