Roam, an upcoming Nairobi, Kenya based company, has announced the launch of their next-gen electric motorcycle, the Roam Air.
Roam is a Swedish-Kenyan technology company, which develops, designs and deploys electric vehicles tailored for the African continent. The company was founded in 2017 and it became the first company in Africa to deliver locally produced electric motorcycles and buses.
Now the company wishes to utilize their nearly 100 employees, to become the lead provider of electric vehicles in Africa. The company was also recently listed on TIME magazine’s top 100 most innovative companies.
The Roam Air is designed to handle both urban and rural roads, with years of research and development dedicated to building the optimal electric motorcycle for Africa, taking into account the different requirements of African roads.
The focus of Roam when creating the Roam Air motorcycle was to design a vehicle with best in class carrying capacity, range and speed in order to increase mass adoption of clean transport across the continent without the need for changes in infrastructure.
On the technical specification, Roam lists the Air electric motorcycle at a range of roughly 110 miles (180km), with a top speed of about 55mph (90km/h). With that, the motorcycle has a great carrying capacity of 485 lbs. (220kg). Each of the batteries in the dual pack has a capacity of 3.24 kWh, so a grand total of 6.5kWh with the additional $550.
This motorcycle is the first fully adapted electric motorcycle offered for commercial market on the continent, while keeping an extremely competitive price of $1500 and with up to 70% decrease in running cost on top of that.
The Roam Air motorcycle’s frame holds a large dual battery system. The configuration allows the battery to be removed from the bike and plugged into any normal outlet at home, or for charging at public charging and swapping stations.
The frame is engineered to tackle any terrain, while also accommodating a storage compartment replacing the faux fuel tank. This dual-sport like motorcycle has been developed from years of research by Roam’s engineering team in Nairobi, which after a few short months, were able to bring their designs into fruition.
“We are thrilled to announce the unveiling of the Roam Air, our next-generation electric motorcycle, adapted and designed in detail for the African use-case and with special focus on affordability, reliability and connectivity. An electric motorcycle tailored for different commercial use-cases such as carrying passengers or cargo with safety at the forefront. It is truly a testament to our commitment to offering world-class electric vehicle technology to the continent.”
Filip Lövström, CEO and Co-Founder of Roam.
In the coming months Roam plans to scale up production in Nairobi to allow the company to keep up with demand interest in the region. With this new motorcycle Roam is targeting large commercial distribution channels all across Africa, such as financiers for end-users, swapping station owners, and large commercial clients.
Source: Roam