this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
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337
Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars (electrek.co)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
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[–] [email protected] 184 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I looked for Ethiopian or African news sites that confirm this story, but it seems like it's not accurate. This African green news site only mentions that ICE cars will be phased out in line with the EU by 2035 and that the government encourages the sale of electric cars through incentives and local assembly:

https://www.afrik21.africa/en/ethiopia-non-electric-vehicles-soon-to-be-banned-from-importation/

There is nothing on this on any large Ethiopian news site. The Reporter has no article on this:

https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/?s=electric+cars

Neither does The Ethiopian Monitor:

https://ethiopianmonitor.com/?s=electric+cars

This Senegalese outlet states that it's not clear when the ban comes into effect:

https://apanews.net/ethiopia-to-ban-importation-of-non-electric-cars/

Given that there are significant issues with maintaining and insuring existing electric cars in the country, it's safe to assume that the ban will not happen immediately:

https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/30035/

There is a different car import ban since October of last year aimed at returning citizens, which doesn't appear to have anything to do with the move to electric vehicles though:

https://www.thereporterethiopia.com/36044/

So in other words, this awful article containing a chat log for some reason (What on Earth was the author thinking with that?) is just an example of poor reporting.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago

but its posted on lemmy

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Thanks for the insight.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

And then they wonder why people loosing trust in media... 🤔

[–] [email protected] 44 points 9 months ago (3 children)

After the ban only external combustion cars will be allowed

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Witness me!!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

REMEMBER ME!!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

So steam engine cars then?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

How about internal deflagration or detonation engines?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This can't be right. This is Africa. There is barely any electricity let alone charging network for electric cars.

This can't be right. Petrol cars will live on WAY longer than the politicians like to think

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Seems like a good investment.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

“Of course, I’m pro,” wrote one of the editors, “but I assume that Ethiopia probably doesn’t have a charging infrastructure ready … no matter how big of a EV fan I am, I can agree some markets are not ready for it just yet.”

So they did this without the charging infrastructure being ready. People need to think about if their part of the world is ready for EV. Before passing this type of law.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago

This is a weird piece to take from the article. An editor for the website who is not Ethiopian informally made the assumption that they don't have the infrastructure and you're saying it's a fact they're not ready for this.

Right before that it says; "(Minister) Sime further explained that efforts to establish charging stations for electric cars remain a high priority, and offered that the nation’s inability to access favorable foreign exchange resources has contributed to its inability to afford to continue importing gasoline and diesel."

So this sounds like it's more logistically viable than ice vehicles.

And the top comment on the article is someone from Ethiopia basically confirming that, and expanding upon it to say the country has been working towards full renewable energy for several decades. Why the pessimism?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

155k registered motor vehicles in Ethiopia for a population of about 130 million. Is it really so unimaginable to you that a country may not be car-dependent?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

and if they're smart they'll build out bike lanes and rail transit instead of multi-lane freeways. it's not like even American can afford that shit

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Are scooters excluded from that count? I’m guessing scooters and motorcycles dominate the roads. Electrifying those are a little more challenging.

Getting cars off gas is a great start though.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Akschully, escooters and ebikes are still the most efficient and easiest to electrify.

And they charge quickly from any wall outlet, so not much additional infrastructure is required.

A single 400w solar panel will charge an ebike pretty fast.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The trade off from a 20 year old bike that gets 40+mpg doesn’t make sense.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Somewhat true in the short term. Also very appropriate to electro for an EV future.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

It doesn’t even make sense in the long term, yet. If your 20 year bike can’t be fixed you don’t run out and buy a new EV, you buy a used gas bike because it’s dirt cheap and you don’t have the money to buy a new or used EV.

There’s different economics at play.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I have no idea what the specific requirements for vehicle registration are. I doubt this article is even true, frankly.

But electrifying smaller vehicles is much, much easier than electrifying large vehicles. The biggest cost center in an EV is the battery, and smaller vehicles need proportionally way less battery compared to large vehicles. An ebike that can go 20-30mph runs off of something not substantially different from a cordless tool battery -- a pack of cheap, commodity 18650s -- and otherwise functions off of totally standard, mechanically simple parts.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Does it matter? We are facing a climate catastrophe because of carbon emissions. Cars or no cars we need to stop.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Does it matter?

Yeah. If people can't buy or use EVs. What's the point?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

The point is our planet is on a trajectory to not support human life. I would rather walk somewhere or bike than continue supporting the oil and gas industry. The stone age (which is usually people retort to this reply) is better than no humans at all.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

People don't need to be able to buy cars. The vast majority can't anyways. So why should the second richest percent of Ethiopia be able to.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

What about internal combustion motorcycles?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 9 months ago

It's because they never had cars in the first place, DUH 🤣