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Given one of the lowest per capita number of motor vehicles, it likely also lacks petroleum infrastructure as well. You don't make a huge number of gas stations
by ttfkam 3y ago
Given one of the lowest per capita number of motor vehicles, it likely also lacks petroleum infrastructure as well. You don't make a huge number of gas stations when there aren't many cars.
If given the choice of building up a transportation infrastructure based on hydrocarbons only to be torn down as the world moves toward electrification versus fast tracking your electrical grid, the latter seems an obvious choice. With the decline in solar prices, it allows for greater decentralization in that infrastructure. Solar ends up a (relative) one-time purchase. Oil is a constant importation drain on your economy.
It's cell phones all over again, skipping over the landline step. Why string phone cables to every home when you can just concentrate on a relative few cell towers?
- toomuchtodo 3y agoAll great points between your comment and the one that you replied to. What’s really exciting is that every country has electrical infrastructure practitioners: electricians, linemen, etc, so the roll out of charging infra can be done very rapidly with proper training and resourcing. It also probably helps that China isn’t yet importing EVs to the developed world at scale, so all of those EVs built beyond domestic consumption will be shipped to places like Ethiopia. Mass produced Chinese EVs speeding the death of combustion vehicles in the developing world seems like a net win.
- jacquesm 3y ago> electricians, linemen, etc, so the roll out of charging infra can be done very rapidly with proper training and resourcing. Not really, the electricians and the linemen are busy with maintenance, to roll out more infra you need a massive influx of capital.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoSavings from fossil fuel costs? Investing in electrical infra delivers returns from deprecating ongoing fossil consumption and associated spend.
- jacquesm 3y agoThat would be a trickle compared to what is required. HV power infra is incredibly expensive and countries like Ethiopia have too little of it as it is. Check out the footage linked below and where and when there is electrical infra. I wouldn't be surprised if there are large areas in Ethiopia where there is no grid at all. First things that get bought when electricity becomes available: refrigerators, televisions. Mobile phones + solar panel chargers are commonplace even where there is no grid. That's a whole industry in Africa. For instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDfvjtb17uE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDfvjtb17uE EV charging: forget about it. Only in the biggest cities.
- simfree 3y agoRemember, these grids are already running 220v and the average labor cost is very low. There are many use cases that make sense within said economy with cheap range limited electric vehicles that do not support fast charging. The calculus changes quite substantially when you are paying people tens of dollars an hour, but it is common in Ethiopia for people to spend nearly half of their income on the cost of commuting to work as wages are so low.
- AlbertCory 3y ago> Sime further explained that efforts to establish charging stations for electric cars remain a high priority Oh, wait. It's a "high priority." That should take care of it /s
- ttfkam 3y agoOr they could go the route of Aptera-style vehicles as long as they stay within 65km/day. The only infrastructure you'd need is roads. Prices will only go down from here. https://youtu.be/0PU4DQoQAWY?si=pxvFKe67jAw_0lOe https://youtu.be/0PU4DQoQAWY?si=pxvFKe67jAw_0lOe