Faster than Europe: The import of combustion cars has been banned in Ethiopia.Image: www.imago-images.de
A new study by Swiss and African researchers shows that thanks to solar power, electric cars in Africa could become profitable much sooner than previously expected.
Jan 13, 2026, 1:18 p.mJan 13, 2026, 1:43 p.m
The vehicle population in Africa is expected to double by 2050. According to a new study, electric vehicles could play a larger role than previously thought.
The question is not whether mobility will increase, but how, ETH Zurich wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
Thanks to solar power, electric cars could become profitable much sooner in many African countries than previously expected. Researchers from ETH Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the African universities Makerere University, University of Port Harcourt and Stellenbosch University report this in the specialist magazine “Nature Energy”.
According to the study, electric cars could be cheaper than combustion engines before 2040. Previous models assumed that combustion engine vehicles would dominate in Africa by the middle of the century.
The prerequisite is that the electric cars are charged with solar power from their own small system, regardless of often unreliable or non-existent power grids.
What the study examined
For their analysis, the researchers compared the total operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions over the entire life cycle. They examined three types of drive: combustion engines with fossil fuels, combustion engines with synthetic fuels (e-fuels) and electric cars that are charged via a solar system that is independent of the power grid.
The research covered 52 African countries, six different vehicle segments – from two-wheelers to minibuses – and the time horizons of 2025, 2030 and 2040.
The results show that two-wheelers charged with solar systems will be economically competitive as early as 2030. By 2040, electric cars are expected to be the cheaper option in all vehicle classes examined and in most countries.
High financing costs
The study identifies high financing costs as the biggest obstacle to the rapid electrification of passenger transport in Africa. In many African countries, loans are expensive because investments are considered risky, as ETH explains in the statement. This is particularly true for electric vehicles because they have higher initial costs.
The study authors derive political recommendations from this. Instead of relying on subsidies for vehicle purchases, governments and financial institutions should take measures to reduce risk in financing, they said in the study. This includes guarantees or mixed financing. This would reduce capital costs and directly improve the competitiveness of electric cars.
(sda)