Dear reader,
This week's article is an exclusive RO interview with Christopher Maara, the founder of Kiri EV, an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer in Kenya.
Chris spent time in India and China learning about two-wheelers, from the drivetrain of a motor vehicle to the battery of an EV. He adapted these learnings to the Kenyan market. Kiri EV has sold over 170 electric motorcycles in Kenya.
In this 4,000-word+ article, we dive into:
- What nudged Chris to build Kiri EV?
- What were his learnings from the Chinese and Indian motorcycle markets?
- How did Kiri’s first product adapt to the African market?
- Why did Kiri expand from manufacturing to financing two-wheelers?
- Who are Kiri’s customers and how do they acquire them?
- How does an EV company think about battery swapping versus home charging?
- How does the two-wheeler market in Africa differ from Kiri’s initial expectations?
And much more.
Biography
Christopher Maara is the founder of Kiri EV, a Kenya-based electric motorcycle manufacturer.
Kiri EV has sold over 170 electric motorcycles in Kenya. The company operates a charging network with 3 active sites, with a goal to expand to 15 new sites in 2026. Kiri EV is also launching a financing arm for its EVs.
Before launching Kiri EV in 2020, Christopher founded GreyPost to provide vehicle storage and auction services for financial institutions in Kenya. He previously worked as a research analyst for BCC Research, where he focused on the energy market.
How did you identify the problem Kiri EV solves?
I came to this problem through research and observation during my time in finance. I was always interested in how capital flows through systems.
What caught my attention was the convergence of several trends: governments across Africa pushing for local manufacturing, fuel prices rising globally, and people building electric motorcycles using secondhand laptop batteries.
That last point was significant. If people were already doing this informally, it meant the technology was accessible. I thought, why not us? Why can't we shift manufacturing to Kenya and build a proper local electric motorcycle brand?
Bikes are everywhere in Africa. There's infrastructure for servicing them. People want them. But nobody had built an electric motorcycle for the African market specifically. They were importing products designed for India or China, which didn't work here.
Transport is foundational to every part of the economy, moving goods and people around. This sector was where I wanted to innovate.
When I visited India, I saw something that didn't exist in Kenya. Big OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like Bajaj and TVS had their own financing arms (Bajaj Finserv, TVS Credit...). Here in Kenya, OEMs do the manufacturing, but they outsource the financing.
I wanted to combine both manufacturing and finance. That insight from India shaped how I crafted Kiri’s model.
What was Kiri’s first prototype?