Ethiopia gets electric buses assembled with Chinese components

A local company in Ethiopia is assembling electric buses using components from China. The Ethiopian government has authorised duty-free importation of components for electric vehicles to encourage their use and technology transfer in response to climate change and rising fuel prices. This is reported by Xinhua News Agency, a partner of TV BRICS.

The introduction of electric vehicles for public transport began after the government announced a ban on imports of petrol and diesel vehicles. Ethiopia planned initially to import large numbers of electric cars and electric buses, but the original 10-year plan was already fulfilled in the first two years.

Thus, the Ethiopian government planned to import about 148,000 electric vehicles and 48,555 electric buses. However, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics recently announced that the original 10-year plan was met in just the first two years of the implementation period from 2021 to 2030.

The government has now revised the strategy and set a new target of importing 439,000 electric vehicles during the period.