SMART – Electric Mobility in Rwanda

Rwanda is in the process of implementing a green growth agenda and thus pursues the opportunities of electric mobility. To help Rwanda bringing forward electric mobility, a joint project on “Sustainable Mobility And Rapid Transport” (SMART) conducted by SWECO and ifeu now resulted in a feasibility study providing comprehensive background on the prerequisites for electric mobility introduction in Rwanda. The report aims to form a basis for further actions in respect to introducing and popularising different electric mobility options in Rwanda. As part of the project ifeu has quantified impacts of an electric mobility scenario for Rwanda (with MYC emissions calculator) and has assessed the climate impacts by introducing electric mobility in a life-cycle perspective.

Benefits of electric vehicles, as compared to corresponding petrol or diesel vehicle, are found in reduced climate impacts, opportunities to reduce dependency of fossil products (oil import), reduced environmental impacts from end of pipe emissions and opportunities in innovation and new markets (including new income generating activities in these sectors). Lower climate impacts for electric vehicles compared to conventional vehicles have also been demonstrated for all analysed cases in a life-cycle analysis (LCA). These benefits are at the highest for public buses for which GHG emissions would be roughly halved by the introduction of electric buses.