There are a lot of exciting developments on Rwanda’s electric vehicle scene, a green e-mobility public bike-share (PBS) transport system company, is scaling up operations in Rwanda hence introduction of the Electric Car Charging Stations hence introduction of the Electric Car Charging Stations.
SAFI UNIVERSAL LINK has unveiled its charging station infrastructure called EVPLUGIN, its first electric vehicle charging station in Kigali, Rwanda. EVPLUGIN is a public EV charging station solutions network company in Africa, with a focus on facilitating the migration from fossil fuel transportation to green electric mobility. The launch of the multipurpose charging station in Kacyiru comes at a time when the government of Rwanda has made commitment to invest $1 billion to convert 20% of vehicles to electric automobiles by 2030.
The Kacyiru EVPLUGIN charging station is the first ever multiple use electric vehicle charging station in the country. “Each station will have both car and motorcycle charging station, making it an all in one charging station component,” said Jerry Ndayishimiye, the marketing manager of EVPLUGIN. Rwanda’s new incentives also exempts electric vehicles, spare parts, and batteries from import and excise duties. All of these would also be treated as zero-rated VAT products and will also be exempt from withholding tax. The growth of EV charging infrastructure in Rwanda, coupled with the new fiscal incentives, will certainly help fast-track the adoption of electric vehicles in Rwanda.
This is in line with the Rwanda government’s carbon neutral initiative. Rwanda aims to reduce emissions by 38% by 2030. “Rwanda has proven to be a leader when it comes to innovativeness and readiness to do business climate. It’s for these reasons that we have set base here and are ready to roll out such exciting and futuristic initiatives in e-mobility,” said Ike Erharbor, the President of EVPLUGIN.
This new fast charging technology enables all electric vehicles to charge on the go. The recent government incentives on the E-mobility sector allows such technologies, like EVPLUGIN charging stations, to make charging relatively cheaper than fuel consumption. This enhances our bid to reduce fuel dependency and curb CO2 emissions. Rwanda has put in place an awesome new incentive to catalyze the adoption of electric vehicles. There are major incentives for charging station operators and importers of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) in Rwanda, including:
- Electricity tariffs for charging stations to be capped at the industrial tariff. This means that charge point operators will be billed at closer to USD 10 cents/kWh instead of 20 cents/kWh and above on the normal commercial tariffs.
- Charging station equipment will all be exempted from import and excise duties. All of these would also be treated as zero-rated VAT products and will also be exempt from withholding tax.