Gas Stations are Changing Globally. How Has It Changed in Your Town? (Part 3: Africa)

This is a story about how gas stations are changing abroad, in Africa, not something that touches a US homeowner's own house directly. But it's worth knowing what's happening, since it shows a different path than the fast-charger buildout happening in Europe and Asia.

Across cities like Nairobi, Kigali, and Johannesburg, fuel retailers such as Vivo Energy (Shell-branded) and TotalEnergies are turning gas station forecourts into battery-swap depots for motorcycle taxis and three-wheelers, the vehicles that dominate commercial transport there. Instead of plugging in and waiting, a driver swaps a dead battery for a charged one in under two minutes and pays by mobile money. Researchers project electric two-wheelers will make up more than 80 percent of electric vehicle sales in the region through 2040, and estimate $3.5 billion to $8.9 billion in financing will be needed to scale it up.

The other big shift: rather than wait for weak power grids to improve, some stations are going off-grid entirely, using solar panels and battery storage to run their own charging. In South Africa, a company called Zero Carbon Charge is building highway charging stations powered fully by on-site solar and batteries, delivering fast charging even during blackouts. Continent-wide, there are still fewer than 1,000 public charging stations serving over 400,000 electric vehicles, but the charging-infrastructure market is projected to grow eightfold by 2030. None of this changes anything for a US home directly, but it's a preview of how energy and transport can leapfrog old infrastructure when grids are unreliable.