ACar - a Electric Vehicle Concept for Sub-Saharan Africa

A team of researchers and students from Nigeria, Ghana and Germany has been working together since 2013 to design a new vehicle concept for Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper aims to analyze the mobility needs deriving from the vehicle concept fulfilling regional requirements at the very early stage of the aCar project. With Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya as a case study, the challenges have been shown to be the poor road conditions, road safety and the affordability of the vehicles. These countries showed the same picture of a huge mobility gap in rural areas, since a suitable vehicle that meets all requirements does not currently exist. The result of the research and design process is a vehicle concept that meets the needs of the people living in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa.