Grace Ashiru
Kenya’s first fully electric taxi service, NopeaRide, has announced that it will close because its parent company, EkoRent Oy, can’t get enough money to keep the business going.
According to the company, the local branch of the Finnish company, EkoRent Africa, has filed for bankruptcy in Kenya. This means that the all-electric vehicle taxi company will no longer be able to operate.
We have taken our electric vehicle fleet off the road and alerted our employees and corporate clients. In a statement, NopeaRide added, “We are now working with relevant authorities to ensure that our operations are wound down in compliance with local legislation.”
NopeaRide debuted in August 2018 with three electric vehicles and gradually expanded its fleet and charging network the following year. They raised extra funds and placed orders for additional EVs and chargers before the end of 2019.
But the business was hurt by the pandemic and the lockdowns that followed in March 2020. This caused about 60% of the daily kilometers driven by Nopea vehicles to drop immediately.
After getting €200,000 from EEP Africa in 2021, the company said it was already on the way to getting better this year.
But the company said that EkoRent OY went bankrupt in Finland and couldn’t get more money to grow its business in Nairobi to the next level.
