Meet Kayoola, the Ugandan bus putting Africa on the EV map

DW (English)

Powered by clean energy, the Kayoola bus is an eco-friendly innovation turning heads across Africa. Pushing the boundaries of innovation, this is not just transport—it’s the future of sustainable mobility, made in Uganda

Transcript

00:00So in 2007 we had a team of students at Makerere University with their lecturers who had a

00:17dream to manufacture the first car in Uganda or more so in Africa.

00:23In 2011, with the help of the government of Uganda, they embarked on that journey and

00:29by 2014 KMC was born.

00:32And we're here to experience the Coyola bus.

00:35I mean how cool is that?

00:37Benja?

00:38What?

00:39We had never built a car so there was no experience.

00:52Of course there was also the case of the finances.

00:56When you couple those together it was really a difficult journey but we overcame this through

01:02of course our persistence and then government came in and when government funded us, we

01:09actually were able to break that barrier of no experience.

01:29You know when you're on the ground and speaking to so many Ugandans, many of us are like really?

01:34Uganda can manufacture a car?

01:36There are not so many of them who believe that this bus, like the Coyola, was actually

01:40made here.

01:41They believe these guys might have got a Chinese car, got it to Uganda and now they are masquerading

01:48as if.

01:49What would you say to those people?

01:50We have the skills, capacity and so on.

01:54And of course we don't make everything on the car as you could see.

01:57We still buy some other things elsewhere.

02:00Just like building a house, you will not make everything.

02:03You have to buy bricks, you have to buy cement to put together but the house is built by you.

02:34It looks like it's mostly male dominated.

02:37How is it like for you to work here?

02:40From engineering school, I think we were mentally prepared to enter a field that is dominated

02:47by men, at least currently.

02:48The very beautiful thing about Kiramoto is they're really for balance, they're really

02:54for gender equality, they really strive to have an equal share of their staff having

03:01both men and women and I think it has made the working environment really comfortable

03:06for all of us.

03:07KMC is a place that really welcomes everyone.

03:13As long as you have the skills and you're ready to put them out there and you're also

03:18hungry for knowledge.

03:20It's really competitive here because there are many young, knowledgeable individuals

03:25here.

03:26But still, it's not all about like you compete with each other, it's all about working together

03:30as a team.

03:31That's why they encourage you around here.

03:50All the engineering is here, so people don't tend to see that we don't outsource the brains

03:58are here and then the frames, the body and most of the outside structure we make here.

04:05Then things like the electrical systems, the axles and engines we still buy and the batteries.

04:12But we have a very concrete, all-steady program to localize most of these components to about

04:1765% by 2030 and we're already doing that with suppliers around.

04:29KMC.

04:31KMC.

04:33KMC.

04:35KMC.

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