The road between Ethiopia and Kenya could soon face a new kind of revolution,not driven by diesel, but by batteries.
An electric vehicle convoy is travelling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi it started from September 17 to 25, putting East Africa’s readiness for cross-border electric transport to a real-world test. The expedition follows the Nordic-Africa EV Summit held in Addis Ababa and is being conducted along the same corridor previously tested in the opposite direction.
The convoy includes an electric heavy-duty vehicle, making the journey more than a demonstration of electric passenger transport. Organisers are using the trip to examine whether electric vehicles can realistically support regional freight and logistics, where heavier vehicles require significantly more energy and charging capacity.
Along the route, the team is assessing the availability of charging infrastructure, grid readiness, vehicle performance, operational requirements and cross-border conditions between Ethiopia and Kenya. The journey will also document infrastructure gaps and changes since the previous Nairobi–Addis expedition.
The corridor has already been tested by electric vehicles. In 2025, a fully electric convoy travelled about 1,600 kilometres between Nairobi and Addis Ababa, crossing the Moyale border and using charging solutions developed along the route.
The latest expedition is therefore intended to establish how much progress has been made and what remains to be done before electric transport can operate reliably across one of East Africa’s important regional corridors.
With a heavy-duty vehicle now part of the test, the biggest question is no longer whether an electric vehicle can make the journey,but whether East Africa can build the infrastructure needed to make electric freight practical at scale.
