Nigeria: Motorcycle Transit Startup Launches Its First Electric Motorbike

Metro Riding Express (Max.ng), a Nigerian motorcycle-hailing company, has launched its first line of electric motorcycles.

The new line of electric motorbikes called the MAX E SERIES, have been under development for the last two years and undergone a piloting phase for a year.

The MAX E SERIES comprises two models which are the MAX E SERIES M1 and the MAX E SERIES M2.

Both models have a battery cycle of 1,500 and can run as fast as 60km per hour.

However, the MAX E SERIES M2 is faster and more performance-enhanced with a speed of 85km per hour and a battery warranty of 2,000 cycles.

The company also says it has signed partnerships with a variety of groups such as energy companies, distributors and real estates to set up battery swapping stations for the motorcycles.

Apart from ensuring access to a mode of transport in both urban and rural settings, the company hopes the electric motorcycles will contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions in the environment.

MAX.ng first announced plans to introduce electric motorcycles to the market last year following its acquisition of a $7 million funding round led by Novastar Ventures from Kenya and Japanese manufacturing giant, Yamaha.

Co-founded by Adetayo Bamiduro in 2015, the company started out as a motorcycle based logistics service before including passenger transportation in 2017 across Lagos and expanded to other cities in Nigeria.

The Co-Founder Stated that stated the electric motorcycles are a “milestone” in terms of leading and pioneering the transformation of vehicle mobility across market segments.

“We’ve been on a product development journey at MAX over the last five years looking at how we could transform mobility across market segments, across vehicle configurations, and we looked at how we could leapfrog combustion engines to electric-powered mobility”, he indicated.

Although Max.ng describes the vehicles as the “first indigenously developed electric motorcycle,” it has also partnered with firms including Yamaha and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

The company also hopes to produce electric motorcycles on a large scale and is “targeting thousands over the next 12 to 18 months”.