The Catholic Church & EVs — Interesting Collaboration In Kenya

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Spiro and Catholic Church Partner to Roll Out Solar-Powered Swap Stations Across Kenya

Spiro, one of the leading electric mobility companies in Africa, has just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Catholic Church in Kenya to establish solar-powered battery swap stations nationwide, advancing the country’s transition to clean and affordable mobility.

Spiro says this initiative is the first of its kind at this scale, combining Spiro’s e-mobility technology with the Catholic Church’s trusted grassroots presence to expand access to affordable, renewable energy solutions across urban and rural Kenya. The Catholic Church has a big presence in Kenya. For example, the Archdiocese of Nairobi, which covers two counties (Nairobi and Kiambu Counties), has 16 deaneries, 127 parishes, and over 4,000 small Christian communities. Across the whole country, the Catholic Church has over 1,000 parishes and over 5,000 mission stations. Facilities ranging from schools to healthcare centres, as well as other real estate, form quite a large portfolio.

“Rolling out solar-powered swap stations marks a new chapter in Kenya’s clean mobility journey. By combining renewable energy with our battery swapping technology and working hand in hand with the Catholic Church, we are ensuring riders can power their journeys affordably, sustainably, and closer to where they live and work,” said Kshitij Sharma, Spiro Kenya country head.

“The Catholic Church is committed to initiatives that safeguard creation and promote the wellbeing of our communities. Partnering with Spiro to establish solar-powered battery swap stations aligns with our mission of stewardship and service, bringing affordable and clean mobility solutions closer to the people we serve,” said Fr. John.

Spiro says the rollout will be phased across the country, helping Kenya cut emissions, lower transport costs, and advance its climate action goals. By embedding clean energy infrastructure within communities, the partnership is set to unlock new green jobs, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and make sustainable transport accessible to millions. 

Spiro adds that this MoU reflects Spiro’s wider mission to transform Africa’s transport ecosystem through locally manufactured, green mobility solutions while collaborating with institutions that hold deep trust and reach at the community level. This collaboration came out of the blue. It’s one that you wouldn’t normally expect. But it’s an interesting one that makes a lot of sense. The motorcycle industry is a vital pillar of Kenya’s transport system. There are about 4 million vehicles registered in Kenya. Motorcycles make up over 50% of the country’s fleet. It’s no surprise then that motorcycles are seeing most of the action in Kenya, and at the moment, the motorcycle sector is the main driver of electric vehicle adoption. In 2024, just over 7% of new motorcycle registrations were electric, followed by 4% for electric tuk tuks, 1.1% for electric buses and minibuses, and then 0.18% for electric cars.

As the Catholic Church is embedded in the community with a wide presence, people going to church or other business at Catholic Church facilities will no doubt include a large portion getting there via motorcycle taxi. Leveraging this large network and real estate to facilitate adoption of electric mobility supported by solar-powered swap stations at these Catholic facilities looks like a great initiative. A good number of these facilities would naturally be in rural areas as well. Therefore, implementing this solar-powered swap station there would help improve connectivity in these areas as well. 

This collaboration got me thinking. Smart partnerships between the new electric mobility companies and existing local organisations can help propel the electric mobility industry to new heights at a much faster pace. In general, the electric mobility sector in most African countries has been driven by startups without much government support. We haven’t seen the kind of financial incentives that helped propel the EV sector in Europe, North America, and China. In a lot of African countries, the transition has been led by locally developed solutions solving real-world everyday problems, resonating with the target market and driving initial uptake. In sectors such as the motorcycle industry, the unit economics just made sense, and customers in the target segments clearly saw the potential savings on fuel and general operational costs, enticing them to switch to electric motorcycles.

Armed with results from real-world pilots, several firms have managed to raise significant funds from investors, helping them grow from early pilot phase to early commercialisation, and some have even grown to full commercial operations. Besides traditional equity and debt contributions, which can be quite hard to close for startups on the African continent, especially in a new sector such as electric mobility, innovative partnerships could provide a pathway to sustaining these businesses. In all of these markets, there are family owned or even larger businesses that have been operating in those markets for decades, accumulating decades of local market expertise, including how to navigate the local business environment. These businesses would have accumulated loads of cash over the years and would be looking to diversify and put some of that money to use in a forward-looking industry. 

Another area to leverage is these organizations would have built a very large client base and network that these electric mobility startups could plug into, providing a good base to start with and scale. Just like in the case of the Catholic Church, some of these organisations could have large real estate portfolios, which in some cases are underutilised, and partnerships with electric mobility startups could open up win-win scenarios where the mobility startup gets access to prime sites for infrastructure such as EV charging and battery swap stations and the owners of the properties get to earn some additional revenues and unlock efficiencies. I think the industry will grow more via leveraging these local partnerships. This will help get it to a level where large institutional investors will start to notice and get the confidence to invest in mobility companies as they usually do in other areas. This will also give confidence to larger traditional investors such as the large pension funds that want to invest in less risky portfolios. I hope we start to see more collaborations like this.