Ecomobilus Technologies Limited, Kenya – Emkoko Project

Written by Professor Jeffrey Gito

Below is a story that shows how innovation in the Kenya electricity sector helps to address real problems as it matters more. The distorted handicrafts of pedestrians (called MKOKOTENI in Kenya) play a decisive role in Kenya, where an informal merchants channel will provide their goods everywhere from suppliers to the market. Ecomobilus’s story highlights the possibility of a transformative electronic ability.

Ecomobilus Technologies Limited is a startup that was established in 2022 to follow up on electronic technological engineering and solar energy. The formation of the company arose from a simultaneous problem faced by the founders (Paul and I and I) with regard to accessing EV replacement batteries for motorcycles in the post -sales in Kenya and even in OEM Source Countries. Initial projects focused on the lithium battery packages specifically designed to replace after -sales to its customers. They achieved this by using the second lithium cells that were selectively recovered from neglected laptop batteries, most of which had more than 80 % of safety.

The battery packages have come a long way to provide a reasonable lithium batteries for electronic ability in Kenya for the first adopters. Then came the request of those who want to convert from the ICE internal combustion motor vehicles to EVS. In response to this, we have implemented the first successful ice to convert a motorcycle, which led to a series of transfers of many versions of motorcycles and the guidance, with the auspices of the University of Ztech and the Chaanaria Business Center, at the University of Kenyatta. Lithium cells that cannot provide sufficient capacity on EVS, but with at least 70 % safety capacity, have been used to build solar energy -charged power plants for use by small companies such as salons and shaving in less than 30 % of the cost of an optimal OEM product.

During this process, the company began obtaining the most prominent media from Kenya and internationally. This prompted us to receive a set of invitations to attend in EV. During these events, we met many enthusiasts who submitted requests for various EV products and lithium battery solutions. One of the clients was the Sow Precise, who were doing a project called “Sunrider” to provide mobile irrigation as a service in a model similar to the “Uber” service. They were running a farm at MBEERE SOUTH, Embu Province, about 150 km from the capital of Kenya, Nairobi.

From the typical farm, they offer effective irrigation models using solar energy, and from there it provides solar irrigation services to its customers using a manual pedestrian handcra (called mkokoteni in Kenya) to move irrigation tools from the farm to the farm in 10 km square areas. This was not only exhausting, but was not sustainable because they could not only provide the service to a very few farm because of the consumer time to withdraw MKOkoteni. When they consulted us, we decided to take a construction project for them MKOKOTENI, which we called EMKOKO.

EMKOKO specifications were supposed to be 400 kg LW, 4 feet and 7 feet, with 48V 45ah and 3KW battery including the contestant seat. We started the project in mid -August 2024. This project presented us with a number of challenges. The biggest challenge was that we did not have a project of a replica in our view of the measurement. This called for a lot of ingenuity and creativity. We designed it similar to the traditional mkokoteni, but we had to think about the ease of maneuvering on the farm, which requires a good permit, torque, off-road processing, and all the necessary off-applications-but reliable enough to avoid the challenges of sending our engineers to distant field support. Therefore, we settled for a model moved by the back seat similar to the loader and made some battery upgrades to 72V45ah to give it more muscle energy to download 0.5T.

Engineers took a standard design for a separate structure and charging bed, focusing on reaching the CKD product. The construction and assembly took us about one month, spent a few days on the wires and other finishes. Our biggest challenge was the cost because we often had to re -do a number of our designs on our cost because we had to provide the best at the end of the day. With the progress of the work, enthusiasm was very high, as our engineers and weekends work and hold many consulting meetings in the company and with engineers derived from other EV companies in Kenya, who will make regular visits to assess our progress and provide useful visions.

Finally, the end of September 2024 delivered our first MVP, and we started its final reviews and reformulated to hand over the full unit in the first week of October 2024. it was shipped on a truck for the customer and we went to launch on October 7, 2024, with an occasion by the director of the United States mission in Kenya and East Africa, David Gusni. Our deep gratitude goes to Mrs. Linda Kamao and a delicate transplant team to believe in us and give a platform to achieve the first functional electrical cart in Kenya and in this region. Also, great thanks to our engineering team, their friends, and engineering brotherhood (including Enviroserve) who made various contributions to the project, and to the entire Ecomobilus team. We are now looking to repeat this vehicle for all Africa, as the movement of heavy loads is considered by human vehicles or in which animals are borrowed common in both cities and rural areas.

We are pleased to partnership with any organizations and entities that can finance financing or technical support. We have received many inquiries from all over Africa, as some request many design modifications to suit their country’s policy restrictions to EV design requirements. The ongoing new projects include a light solar car with the University of Moranga Technology, Kenya, and a new joint cooperation between Ecomobilus, the University of Moranga, the University of Kigali, Rwanda, for regional EV projects targeting African markets.

Professor Gito took a bold step to resign from the fully -time employment teaching to focus on the arduous task of building this young woman. The initial signs are good, although it has not yet received funding. The flow of new orders is convincing and there are many participants abroad who conquer them for JV. The company has won many awards so far, including the AFRICA Green Technology Award at the Africa Connected Africa summit, 2024; And the best innovation at the University of Ztech in 2024.