The Overlooked Fleets Holding Back Kenya’s Green transition

Every day, thousands of motorbikes move food, paint, medicines, and parcels across Kenya’s towns. Forklifts shift pallets through warehouses. Vans link factories to shops and ports to industrial parks. These vehicles rarely feature in policy speeches, yet they are central to how the economy actually works.

They also burn large volumes of fuel, absorb fuel price shocks, and contribute to congestion and urban air pollution.

While the national electric mobility debate has focused on private cars and high-profile electric buses, these industrial fleets remain largely outside the spotlight.

That gap matters. If Kenya is serious about cutting emissions while lowering business costs and improving competitiveness, electrifying industrial fleets must move to the centre of policy and investment.

Kenya has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 32 per cent by 2030, with transport widely understood as a key contributor. To support the shift away from fossil fuels, the government has introduced a package of incentives, including cutting excise duty on fully electric vehicles to 10 per cent, zero-rating import duty for electric units and selected components, as well as zero-rating VAT on electric motorcycles, buses and batteries.

A special electric mobility tariff has further improved the economics. EV charging power is priced at about KSh8 per kilowatt hour during off-peak hours and KSh16 at peak, well below standard commercial electricity rates. These measures are beginning to register. Kenya’s electric vehicle fleet has now surpassed 9,000 registered units as of mid-2025, a sharp rise from just a few, years ago.

But uptake has been uneven. Much of the growth has been driven by private ownership, while the bigger opportunity lies with industrial fleets including delivery motorbikes, forklifts, vans and utility vehicles that operate daily, clock high mileage and account for a disproportionate share of fuel consumption and emissions.

For many businesses, transport remains one of the most cost-intensive parts of operations. Reliance on petrol and diesel exposes firms to global oil price volatility, foreign-exchange pressure and rising maintenance costs. Electric fleets offer a different operating logic.

Although upfront acquisition costs can be higher, lifetime economics are often more favorable. Electric vehicles are significantly more energy-efficient, have fewer moving parts, require less maintenance and eliminate oil changes altogether. They are quieter, smokeless and better suited to dense urban environments and indoor facilities such as warehouses. For fleet managers, predictable electricity pricing replaces the uncertainty of fuel markets.

Some companies are already testing this model. Crown Paints has deployed seven electric forklifts and 15 electric motorbikes across its logistics operations. The company estimates that this shift could avoid more than 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually while reducing fuel and maintenance costs. In an environment of rising logistics expenses and deteriorating urban air quality, these gains are commercially relevant.

Even so, such cases remain the exception. Most firms continue to run fleets almost entirely on petrol and diesel, with limited strategic focus on electrification or decarbonization.

E-mobility is also an energy-security issue. Kenya imports all its petroleum fuels, leaving businesses exposed to global price shocks and currency movements. Electricity, by contrast, is generated locally, with more than 90 per cent of Kenya’s power coming from renewable sources, mainly geothermal and hydropower. Shifting transport demand from fuel pumps to the grid keeps more capital within the domestic economy while cutting emissions at source.

Charging infrastructure is gradually expanding. Kenya Power has committed to installing 45 public EV charging stations across major towns, including Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Mombasa and Nyeri, and has allocated Sh258 million toward additional hubs and its own fleet electrification. KenGen has installed charging points at strategic sites such as its Naivasha geothermal facilities. The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has also outlined plans to roll out 10,000 EV charging stations nationwide by 2030.

These are necessary steps. But if infrastructure investments and incentives continue to prioritize private electric cars alone, Kenya risks missing the highest-impact segment of the market.

Scaling industrial fleet electrification will require coordinated action. Policymakers should complement existing tax incentives with targeted measures for commercial fleets, including accelerated depreciation for electric fleet assets and support for charging infrastructure at warehouses, logistics hubs and industrial parks. Financiers can support adoption through concessional loans, leasing models and blended-finance structures that reduce upfront capital barriers.

E-fleet assemblers and dealers must ensure carbon credit value from electrification is transparently assessed and fairly shared. These benefits should not accrue only upstream; fleet buyers and operators deserve equitable participation. A clear allocation framework will build trust, improve returns and accelerate adoption

Business leaders, meanwhile, should approach fleet electrification as a cost-management and resilience strategy, not a compliance exercise.

Kenya’s green transition will not be delivered by policy announcements or showroom numbers alone. It will be shaped by practical decisions made across supply chains, factory floors and distribution networks. Industrial fleets are one of the most effective, and still underused levers available. Leaving them out of the electrification agenda now comes at a competitive cost.

Read Also: Electric Buses Prove That Green Transport Can Also Be Good Business

By Jane Ndirangu | Group Sustainability Manager | Crown Paints