Kenya needs regulation around Electric Vehicles before the dumping starts

Kenya Power has started a nationwide push to move every electric vehicle (EV) owner who charges at home or at work onto its dedicated e-mobility tariff. The utility wants to identify customers who are charging EVs on ordinary electricity accounts, then shift them onto a cheaper, EV-specific rate. The goal is twofold. Owners get lower charging costs, and Kenya Power gets a clear picture of how much power the sector actually pulls from the grid.

Here is the part that explains why it matters. Only 331 customers are currently metered under the e-mobility tariff. Kenya Power wants that figure to reach 1,000 by the end of the current financial year. The gap is the whole story. Far more people are already charging EVs than 331, but most sit on standard meters paying standard rates. A utility cannot plan grid upgrades or price power properly for a sector it cannot fully see.

What the tariff offers

The e-mobility tariff was approved by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) in 2023. It charges KES 16 per unit during peak hours and KES 8 per unit off-peak, with the off-peak window running overnight between 11pm and 6am. Both rates sit below standard electricity prices. The off-peak rate is the real incentive. It nudges owners to charge overnight, when grid demand is lower and there is spare capacity to use.

The numbers behind the move

Kenya Power says electricity sales to the e-mobility sector grew more than 113-fold in under three years. Monthly volumes rose from 13,500 units in July 2023 to about 1.5 million units by April 2026. Monthly revenue climbed from KES 873,907 to a peak of KES 35.25 million in February 2026. Cumulative revenue over the 34-month period reached KES 382 million, roughly $2.96 million. In November 2025, monthly consumption crossed one million units for the first time and has stayed above that level since.

Nairobi dominates, generating KES 271.9 million of that revenue. The Coast region followed with KES 55 million, North Eastern with KES 35 million, and West Kenya with KES 11.5 million.

Kenya Power projects annual EV charging revenue could reach KES 5.9 billion by 2030. The Electric Mobility Association of Kenya (EMAK) puts the figure slightly lower at KES 5.79 billion, with annual grid demand of 121 gigawatt-hours.

Why adoption is climbing

Policy has done much of the lifting. The government waived import duty on the first 100,000 EVs, zero-rated VAT on EVs and lithium-ion batteries, and cut excise duty on electric bicycles, motorcycles and battery systems. Kenya had registered more than 35,000 EVs by the end of 2025, most of them two- and three-wheelers, up from 796 three years earlier.

Even so, buying an EV here is not always cheap. We already covered how one importer watched a KES 2.7 million EV from China balloon to a KES 6.8 million bill once Kenyan taxes and shipping were added. Incentives have improved since, but cost is still a real barrier for private buyers.

The timing also tracks with the National Electric Mobility Policy, launched in February 2026. That policy moved Kenya’s EV sector from scattered pilots into a national strategy covering local manufacturing, charging infrastructure, grid readiness and incentives. Accurate metering is the groundwork that policy needs. You cannot plan a grid for a sector you are not measuring.

What to watch

For EV owners, the practical takeaway is simple. If you charge at home or at work on a normal meter, expect Kenya Power to identify you and offer migration to the e-mobility rate. That should lower your charging bill, especially if you charge overnight. For the wider sector, this metering drive is the quiet work that decides whether public charging, grid capacity and pricing can keep up with how fast Kenyans are buying electric.