Opibus, a Swedish/Kenyan technology firm that designs, develops, and manufactures electric vehicles for the African continent, has officially changed its name to Roam Motors.
Roam is a pioneer in the transition to sustainable transportation in Africa. It was the first and most successful enterprise to supply locally manufactured electric bikes and electric buses.
Roam is presently the foremost maker of electric vehicles in Africa, with about 100 employees, and the largest fleet of electric motorcycles set out, and it was recently featured in the print issue of National Geographic.
The reason for this change is to better represent the company’s ideals. ROAM simply means to travel across a large region, referring to the company’s exploration of Africa.
The new name is planned to reflect the company’s big aim to produce breakthrough technologies that are optimized for general usage across the continent, as well as its ambition to electrify Africa’s transportation segment.
“This is more than a name change, it’s a milestone that brings us closer to realizing our ambition as leaders in providing electric mobility solutions and energy systems for the African region.
It is exciting to see how far we have come and forging forward, it is even more thrilling seeing there are endless possibilities to what we can achieve in Africa.” Filip Lövström, CEO, ROAM (prev. Opibus)
The conversion to Roam changes the page on Opibus, which has been regulated since 2017. Over this period, it has now been advanced to electric motorcycles and, in recent times, the launch of the first all-electric bus, that is designed and developed in Africa. All these were the former stages of the early protocol across the company’s growth.
Underneath the umbrella of Roam, the company intends to be serving Roam Motorcycles, Roam Transit (buses), Charging, Roam Energy, and Muse which covers the consultation for the mining, utility, and Safari segment, which together create a brochure and feasible ecosystem solution for the transport sector.
The company intends to focus on electric vehicles and energy system solutions, with a scale-up in their deployment. In the rear years of market research, the mass transportation sector has just emerged as an area with the greatest impact on transportation.
Africa’s road transport sector accounts for 50% of the continent’s transport emissions and 23% of global transport emissions. For this purpose, the company has intrusively made a leapfrog for this emerging market with its main focus on mass transit.
In South Africa, Africa’s largest motor vehicle market, only 269 plug-in vehicles were sold in 2021. Firms such as Roam that are developing vehicles locally that are only focused on the local markets will have a huge role to play in the conversion of electric mobility on the continent.
