Tanzania’s smoke-spewing three-wheelers face new electric competition

Standing on a bustling street in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last year, bakery owner Gloria Laizer made what would become a fateful decision.  

The 29-year-old resolved to ditch her noisy, petrol-burning three-wheeled vehicle, known locally as a bajaj, and replace it with an electric model.  

The move paid off swiftly. Laizer bid goodbye to pricey petrol, slashing her daily expenses for cake deliveries from 31,000 Tanzanian shillings (US$12) to just 3,000 shillings (US$1). Soon, the low noise-emitting  vehicle caught the attention of her children's school and she began ferrying other students home, giving her another income stream. 

“As a company, we have been able to save a lot of money,” says Liazer. 

Africa, Asia and Latin America are home to 570 million motorcycles and three-wheelers, the vast majority of which run on petrol. But a growing number of drivers, like Laizer, are switching to electric substitutes, a shift experts say is crucial to reining in the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. 

“Transitioning from vehicles with internal combustion engines to those powered by electricity is not just a trend. It is a necessary shift to achieve net-zero emissions targets,” says Rob De Jong, Head of the Sustainable Mobility Unit with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  

Two- and three-wheelers are the backbone of transport systems in many African countries, serving as taxis, delivery vehicles and personal transport. In Mali and Burkina Faso, for example, they make up 80 per cent of vehicles. 

They can be found in urban settings, where they are ideal for skirting traffic jams, and in rural areas, where they are often the only form of transit.  

These vehicles consume between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of all liquid petroleum fuels used for transport in countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  

Shifting these vehicles to electric has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by between 500 and 600 megatonnes every year. That is the equivalent of taking between 170 and 200 million petrol-powered cars off the road – about four times the number of cars in Germany in 2024. 

In Tanzania, UNEP is working to spearhead the shift to electric vehicles through its Global Electric Mobility Programme. Along with countering climate change, the transition could create new economic opportunities, found a recent UNEP-led report.  

Yassin Hamisi, 30, also Tanzanian, embodies this promise. Until 2020, he worked seasonal jobs as an uncertified welder. But that year, he took advantage of a lease-to-own scheme from manufacturer TRÍ, securing an electric bajaj without a deposit.  

Hamisi now earns enough to support his parents and himself financially. After paying off his bajaj, he intends to return to school, a dream he had given up on. 

“Since I became an e-bajaj taxi driver, I've shed the constant fear of survival and feel uplifted,” says Hamisi. 

Tanzania has about 1.2 million motorcycles and three-wheelers with internal combustion engines. At least 10 companies have entered the country’s electric mobility market, hoping to capitalize on an untapped opportunity. For example, leading ride-hailing platform Bolt, asset financer Watu and TRÍ have just launched a pilot programme, deploying 25 electric bajaj taxis.