Africa E-Mobility Week 2026: The Continental Brief
Africa has fourteen months until COP32 in Addis Ababa. The African Group holds the presidency. For the first time, the continent’s climate moment and the continent’s transport transition sit on the same calendar.
What is being formed at Stellenbosch
This is not a showcase. Six things are being put on the table across two days, and each of them leaves the room different from how it entered.
The continental framework, and the unveiling of its roadmap. The African Union’s continental approach to electric mobility moves from framework to implementation sequence. The opening session on Day 1 takes it from policy to action, with the African Union Commission, UNECA and UNEP on the same stage.
The largest gathering of African national e-mobility associations yet convened. Ten national associations, from Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Cameroon, Tanzania, Senegal, South Africa and Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, in one room, with a collective announcement of their own.
A locally manufactured electric drivetrain component, unveiled. Stroom and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research bring African component manufacturing out of the presentation deck and onto the exhibition floor. It will be there to be seen and handled, not described.
The African Development Bank’s green mobility facility, and what it means for projects that have been waiting for an instrument that fits them.
A continental status assessment and an outlook on risks. Where the transition actually is, measured rather than asserted, and what could stop it.
The 2027 host announcement. Africa E-Mobility Week has convened in Addis Ababa, Nairobi and now Stellenbosch. Where it goes next is revealed at this edition.
Who is in the room
Close to one hundred organisations are contributing to the programme.
From South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Senegal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Seychelles, spanning transport, energy, industry, environment and standards. Ministers, permanent secretaries, regulators and agency heads.
Including the African Union Commission, UNECA, UNEP, UNIDO, the AfCFTA Secretariat, SADC, the African Road Safety Observatory and the African Organisation for Standardisation.
Including the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, British International Investment, Cygnum Capital, E3 Capital, LeapFrog Investments, AfricInvest, CrossBoundary, Convergence Partners, African Infrastructure Investment Managers, Nithio and the Green Finance Institute.
From across the continent and beyond, including Ampersand, Spiro, BasiGo, Roam, ARC Ride, Zembo, ZoomE, Kabisa, MellowVans, Everlectric, FlxEV, M-KOPA, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, TAILG, Golden Arrow Bus Services and Unitrans.
Including the ICCT, the World Resources Institute, Agora Verkehrswende, the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, the Global South Center at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies, Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town, the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and the LUMS Energy Institute.
The full programme partner list runs longer. The point is not the length. It is that the institutions that decide things in African e-mobility are in one place for two days, and most of them are African.
The exhibition
The exhibition is where the arguments on stage get tested against hardware.
Confirmed exhibitors include FlxEV, Valternative Energy, Go Kabisa, Duolun Technologies, Chogori Tech, Xtemp Test and Measurement, Scoot Hero, Atlantis Special Economic Zone and Everlectric, alongside the Stroom and CSIR unveiling.
Between them they cover electric commercial vehicles, two and three wheelers, interconnection and component systems, battery testing and measurement, fleet leasing, and special economic zone manufacturing. Several are building in Africa rather than importing into it. Several will have vehicles on site.
Exhibition runs across both days, with dedicated floor time at 08:00, at lunch on both days, and through every transition break.
On the road: what electrification actually looks like
An electric truck on one of Africa’s busiest corridors. On Day 1, in partnership with the Kuehne Climate Center, an operator who has run the route tells the room what happened. Not a projection. A journey, with the numbers.
Industry Tours, Wednesday 30 September. Developed with GreenCape, the tours take delegates into Cape Town and the Western Cape to see implementation at working sites.
Organisations on the route include The Green Cab, the Cape Town operator that has been building a carbon-compensated fleet since 2009; Everlectric, which leases electric commercial fleets to South African logistics operators; Balancell, the Cape Town lithium battery manufacturer; Stroom Cargo; FlexEV; and MellowVans, which manufactures compact electric delivery vehicles in Stellenbosch and has since exported into Europe and the United Kingdom.
Route, sequence and delegate arrangements are being finalised. Places on the tours are limited.
Your contribution is being collected
Every session carries structured polling.
This is not audience engagement. What the room decides at Stellenbosch feeds directly into the continental position the sector carries into 2027 and on to Addis Ababa. Where the room splits, the split is recorded. Where it converges, the convergence is recorded.
If you are in a session, your answer counts toward what Africa says next. That is a reason to be in the difficult sessions rather than the comfortable ones.
The road to COP32
Three steps, and this is the first.
Implementation lessons, practical priorities and where the sector actually stands. What works, what has failed, and what the evidence supports.
Those discussions taken into a new regional context, deepened, and consolidated into common positions. The host is announced at this edition.
The African e-mobility sector arrives with clear, coordinated priorities on implementation, investment, industrialisation and policy, rather than arriving to react to an agenda set elsewhere.
Each step only works if the one before it did.
What to do
Open the Eventee app before you travel and book your sessions, because capacity on the smaller stages is limited. Request your meetings through the app now rather than on arrival. Bring one question you actually need answered, and put it to a room that contains the people who can answer it. Register separately for the Industry Tours, since places are capped.
Do it this week. Visa processing and flights into Cape Town at this notice are already tight.
The exhibition floor, the investor sessions and the ministries are on the same programme by design.
Accreditation is open. There are stories here that have not been told, including a locally manufactured component reaching the floor and ten national associations acting together for the first time.
What is decided at Stellenbosch does not stay in Stellenbosch. It carries into 2027 and into Addis. Participating shapes it. Reading about it afterwards does not.