Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope: February 6, 2025
Cities can accelerate e-bike adoption!
The Rwandan capital city of Kigali has become a hub for e-bikes thanks to policy and entrepreneurship, providing a great example for the world.
Tell your city to speed up electric bike adoption!
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Reasons For Hope
On January 1, 2025, the Rwandan capital city Kigali stopped registering new fossil fuel powered motorbikes (essentially a ban, not applying to bikes already in use), in an effort to speed the uptake of electric motorbikes and reduce air pollution. This will likely also boost domestic innovators: Rwanda has quickly become an Africa-leading tech hub home to cutting-edge startups including Zipline drone delivery, Munyax Eco solar water heaters, and Spiro and Ampersand electric motorbike makers. Ampersand (see photos) is growing particularly rapidly, with over 4,000 e-bikes on Rwandan roads and a spreading network of fast battery swapping stations.
This is just one of many examples worldwide where cities are taking farsighted policy actions to accelerate the adoption of electric motorbikes, advancing urban mobility and clean air. The energy experts at the Rocky Mountain Institute have even published a free E-Bike Environment and Economics Impact Assessment Calculator to help American cities and states access granular data to quantify these benefits, and they’re holding a webinar for transport officials on February 11, 2025 (available at rmi.org/event/webinar-how-cities-and-states-can-accelerate-e-bike-adoption-using-rmis-free-e-bike-calculator/). There’s never been a better time to zoom forward with e-bikes!
Tell your city to speed up electric bike adoption!
