Ethiopia has decided that only electric cars may be imported into the country. The move is a major step towards sustainable mobility and is ahead of the European Union's plans to ban internal combustion engines from 2035.
Probably helped by the fact that they have really low amount of cars anyway: They’re ranked at 189th out of 195 countries when listed by motor vehicles by capita according to Wikipedia. They have a whopping of 10 vehicles per 1000 people and total of 1,200,000 vehicles in total while being the 13th most populous country in the world.
Well usually I’m in the fuck cars camp, especially as I’m pretty much forced to bicycle everywhere.
In a rich western country, low car ownership would be great. But cars are also an indicator of personal and economic prosperity. Car ownership is good ‘to a point’ so to speak.
Since the per capita gross national income of Ethiopia is barely above a thousand dollars, I don’t think they’re making informed decisions vis-a-vis car ownership. They simply can’t afford them. Heck, they can barely afford a bicycle I imagine.
I would wager significant money that China has a big hand in this.
The Belt and Road initiative has been letting them get their hooks into Africa quite well and Ethiopia is still not a rich country, if you are reasonably well off and can afford a vehicle chances are its not going to be a Polestar or a Tesla. BYD, LDV and GWM are going to become the default brands.
Probably helped by the fact that they have really low amount of cars anyway: They’re ranked at 189th out of 195 countries when listed by motor vehicles by capita according to Wikipedia. They have a whopping of 10 vehicles per 1000 people and total of 1,200,000 vehicles in total while being the 13th most populous country in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_by_motor_vehicles_per_capita?wprov=sfti1#
Good for them
Ah, so this is basically mandating that your unicorn needs to be painted pink…
I suspected car ownership would be low, but I didn’t know it was THAT bad though.
That bad, or that good?
Well usually I’m in the fuck cars camp, especially as I’m pretty much forced to bicycle everywhere.
In a rich western country, low car ownership would be great. But cars are also an indicator of personal and economic prosperity. Car ownership is good ‘to a point’ so to speak.
Since the per capita gross national income of Ethiopia is barely above a thousand dollars, I don’t think they’re making informed decisions vis-a-vis car ownership. They simply can’t afford them. Heck, they can barely afford a bicycle I imagine.
Given that Ethiopia is essentially Utopia incarnate, good, obviously.
I would wager significant money that China has a big hand in this.
The Belt and Road initiative has been letting them get their hooks into Africa quite well and Ethiopia is still not a rich country, if you are reasonably well off and can afford a vehicle chances are its not going to be a Polestar or a Tesla. BYD, LDV and GWM are going to become the default brands.
You say that with such menace as though the West having their hooks in Africa has gone so well for Africa