In a country where the price of gasoline has doubled since the October military putsch and where inflation is running at more than 250%, this 44-year-old engineer has already sold 12 tuk-tuks and a hundred electric scooters.

“Gasoline tuk-tuk drivers know how valuable the alternative we offer is because they are suffering,” Mr. Samir, owner of the factory, told AFP, while many of them now claim lose more money than they earn transporting passengers or products.

And, a major bonus in one of the countries most threatened by climate change, according to the UN, Mr. Samir's electric vehicles "check three boxes of sustainable development: the fight against poverty, protection of health and protection of the environment. environment," he says.

saving time and money

Already at the end of 2020, the UN estimated that "emissions from three-wheelers reduce visibility, damage the environment and create breathing difficulties" in Sudan where public transport is almost non-existent, also pointing to their "noise pollution".

On his tuk-tuks, "without a fuel engine, there is much less noise", retorts Mr. Samir.

For Bakry Mohammed, who sells vegetables on his scooter, switching from petrol to electricity was "a real gain".

Entrepreneur Mohammed Samir, owner of the Al-Shehab factory which manufactures electric tuk-tuks, during an interview on April 19, 2022 in the Khartoum-Bahri district of the Sudanese capital ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP

A gain of money with a "daily income which has doubled", and a gain of time, because he no longer has to wait for hours in front of the rarely supplied gas stations in Khartoum.

"With each recharge, the battery of my electric scooter lasts a week," he told AFP.

For a range of a hundred kilometres, "you have to put the vehicle on charge for about eight hours", explains Mr. Samir.

And the drivers are lucky: they can do it at night, when they are not working, and especially when the electricity does not cut.

Because during the day, she sometimes disappears for hours in Sudan.

Despite everything, the kilowatt has not escaped drastic increases: in January, its price was multiplied by five by the military power, taken by the throat by the stoppage of international aid, i.e. 40% of the budget of the State, in retaliation to the putsch.

"But charging your electric tuk-tuk is still cheaper than filling a gas tank," says Mr. Samir.

The difference is not insignificant: a single liter of gasoline - which is used as the basis for the fuel of touk-tuks - costs 700 pounds, or 1.25 euros, while eight hours of charge vary from 200 to 350 pounds .

Like "the rest of the world"

Like the drivers of electric tuk-tuks, Mr. Samir's small factory had to adapt to the numerous power cuts.

On days without electricity, workers perform tasks that require little electricity, such as joining parts together, so as not to spend a fortune to power generators with gasoline that compensates.

"We divide the work: we sometimes work in the morning, sometimes in the evening depending on the power cuts," he says.

An accountant in southern Sudan and tuk-tuk driver, Amjad Hamdan has found an even more practical solution: he recharges their batteries using the sun, a resource that Sudan, one of the hottest countries in the world, lacks not.

A worker assembles an electric tuk-tuk at the Al-Shehab factory on April 19, 2022 in the Khartoum-Bahri district of the Sudanese capital ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP

"The panels are on the roof and when you drive, they power the batteries," he told AFP.

And all these innovations are welcome because "everything that runs on gasoline will be replaced by electricity", underlines Mr. Samir.

And to add that its tuk-tuks give Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, "the opportunity to go at the same pace as the rest of the world".

© 2022 AFP