Inchcape and BYD are partners in a new distribution agreement for Ethiopia!

Sign up to receive daily news updates from CleanTechnica via email. Or follow us on Google News!

In an unprecedented move a few months ago, Ethiopia effectively became the first country in the world to ban the import of vehicles with internal combustion engines. This ban was not a future target for 2030 or 2035. Rather, it was an immediate ban on the import of ICE cars, without any exceptions.

Ethiopia’s motives? The high fossil fuel import bill amounts to more than $5 billion annually, depleting a large portion of the country’s scarce foreign currency resources. Energy security and self-sufficiency was another key driver. Ethiopia recently commissioned the first units of the 5,150 MW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The Renaissance Dam will add another 15,500 GWh of clean electricity to the country’s energy mix. This means that Ethiopia now has some good, locally generated renewable energy that can be used to replace a large portion of its huge import bill.

This ban, coupled with the reduction of import duties and taxes on electric cars, has led to an increase in the electric car population in Ethiopia. Like many countries on the African continent, Ethiopia has a very low car usage rate. The population of Ethiopia is 126 million, but the total number of vehicles registered in Ethiopia is about 1.2 million. Most of these vehicles are over 20 years old. According to reports and announcements by the Ethiopian government, Ethiopia had a plan to stimulate the adoption of electric vehicles in Ethiopia with a 10-year goal to see 148,000 electric cars and nearly 50,000 electric buses on Ethiopia’s roads by 2030. However, Ethiopia has made incredible progress on this The trajectory is such that the Ministry of Transport and Logistics recently said that this goal of more than 100,000 electric vehicles has already been achieved in just the first two years of This plan! How cool is this?

Thanks to this incredible progress, the goal has since been raised to nearly 500,000 over a 10-year period. Let’s take a moment to absorb all of this. So, in just two years, locally assembled EVs and imported EVs have added nearly 10% to the total current fossil fuel vehicle registration in Ethiopia!

Most of the electric cars coming to Ethiopia have been brought by independent dealers. Most are used as well as low-mileage and even brand-new parallel imports of made-in-China EVs like the Toyota bZ4x EV, the Mercedes-Benz EQ range, Kia EVs and VW’s ID.4 and ID.6 as well. Such as Changan Benben E-Star.

It seems that electric car giant BYD has been carefully studying all these events in Ethiopia. BYD has officially entered the Ethiopian market! Inchcape this week signed an agreement with BYD to distribute the new energy vehicle (NEV) manufacturer’s vehicles in Ethiopia.

The deal between the two companies is their first distribution agreement in Africa, and is in addition to the existing agreements in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Singapore. It supports Inchcape’s strong relationships with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and understanding of the markets in which it operates, as the company continues to achieve its ambition of becoming the world’s leading automotive distributor.

The distribution agreement for BYD vehicles in Ethiopia is delivered through Inchcape MOENCO. Ethiopia’s plan to increase adoption of new energy vehicles is in line with Inchcape’s own commitment to the transition to mobility.

Francis Agbonlahor, Managing Director, Inchcape Africa, said: “This strategic partnership between MOENCO and BYD represents a pivotal moment in the Ethiopian automotive landscape, as we work side by side to lead this mission in providing eco-friendly, efficient, technologically advanced and smart energy mobility solutions.”

Inchcape’s partnership with BYD in Ethiopia means that customers can benefit not only from an exciting range of new energy vehicles, but also from the value-added services that Inchcape can offer through OEMs, such as spare parts and after-sales support. The distribution agreement to offer BYD electric vehicles is scheduled to start from December 2024.

BYD has been launching a lot of models in the past year, as Zach discusses in this article. BYD is also significantly increasing production of electric vehicles. This is one of the reasons why BYD was able to be the first company to sell more than 500,000 electric vehicles (including battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) in one month! All of this also allows BYD to expand its global reach.

It seems like we get an announcement about BYD entering a new market every week now, and Ethiopia was the latest. It’s great to see that Ethiopians will now have greater access to official vehicles that come with warranties and all the goodies you don’t get from independent dealers or gray imports. I’m so excited about this. Ethiopia is a left-hand drive country just like China, which means Ethiopians will be able to quickly access affordable electric cars like the BYD Seagull, among other vehicles.