Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars
Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars
Ethiopia's Transport and Logistics Ministries have announced that automobiles cannot enter the country unless they are electric. (!)
I looked for Ethiopian or African news sites that confirm this story, but it seems like it's not accurate. This African green news site only mentions that ICE cars will be phased out in line with the EU by 2035 and that the government encourages the sale of electric cars through incentives and local assembly:
https://www.afrik21.africa/en/ethiopia-non-electric-vehicles-soon-to-be-banned-from-importation/
There is nothing on this on any large Ethiopian news site. The Reporter has no article on this:
https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/?s=electric+cars
Neither does The Ethiopian Monitor:
https://ethiopianmonitor.com/?s=electric+cars
This Senegalese outlet states that it's not clear when the ban comes into effect:
https://apanews.net/ethiopia-to-ban-importation-of-non-electric-cars/
Given that there are significant issues with maintaining and insuring existing electric cars in the country, it's safe to assume that the ban will not happen immediately:
https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/30035/
There is a different car import ban since October of last year aimed at returning citizens, which doesn't appear to have anything to do with the move to electric vehicles though:
https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/36044/
So in other words, this awful article containing a chat log for some reason (What on Earth was the author thinking with that?) is just an example of poor reporting.
but its posted on lemmy
Thanks for the insight.
And then they wonder why people loosing trust in media... 🤔
After the ban only external combustion cars will be allowed
Witness me!!
REMEMBER ME!!
So steam engine cars then?
How about internal deflagration or detonation engines?
This can't be right. This is Africa. There is barely any electricity let alone charging network for electric cars.
This can't be right. Petrol cars will live on WAY longer than the politicians like to think
Seems like a good investment.
“Of course, I’m pro,” wrote one of the editors, “but I assume that Ethiopia probably doesn’t have a charging infrastructure ready … no matter how big of a EV fan I am, I can agree some markets are not ready for it just yet.”
So they did this without the charging infrastructure being ready. People need to think about if their part of the world is ready for EV. Before passing this type of law.
This is a weird piece to take from the article. An editor for the website who is not Ethiopian informally made the assumption that they don't have the infrastructure and you're saying it's a fact they're not ready for this.
Right before that it says; "(Minister) Sime further explained that efforts to establish charging stations for electric cars remain a high priority, and offered that the nation’s inability to access favorable foreign exchange resources has contributed to its inability to afford to continue importing gasoline and diesel."
So this sounds like it's more logistically viable than ice vehicles.
And the top comment on the article is someone from Ethiopia basically confirming that, and expanding upon it to say the country has been working towards full renewable energy for several decades. Why the pessimism?
155k registered motor vehicles in Ethiopia for a population of about 130 million. Is it really so unimaginable to you that a country may not be car-dependent?
and if they're smart they'll build out bike lanes and rail transit instead of multi-lane freeways. it's not like even American can afford that shit
What about internal combustion motorcycles?
It's because they never had cars in the first place, DUH 🤣