{"slug":"field-note-02-investor-questions","lang":"en","kind":"note","title":"Field Note 02 — The five questions European investors ask me about e-mobility in East Africa","summary":"From the European Economic Congress in Katowice to the Polish–Kenyan business forums, the same five questions come up every time. Here are my answers, with the numbers I use on stage.","tags":["field-notes","gregory-radek","investors","financing","eec-2026","poland-kenya"],"updated":"2026-06-05","reading_minutes":3,"url":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/notes/field-note-02-investor-questions","markdown_url":"https://margtor.africa/api/knowledge/notes/field-note-02-investor-questions.md?lang=en","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"MargTor Ltd., https://margtor.africa"},"author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Gregory Radek","jobTitle":"Co-Founder & CTO, MargTor Ltd.","description":"East Africa's leading industry expert on electric two- and three-wheelers","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregradek/","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregradek/","https://electro.technology"]},"body":"## The room is always the same\n\nWhether it is a panel at the European Economic Congress or a Polish–Kenyan business forum, the audience is European capital trying to understand an African operating model. The questions are good ones. These are the five I hear most, and how I answer them.\n\n## 1. \"Is there enough electricity?\"\n\nNot from the grid, not everywhere — and that is the point. Our swap hubs are **solar-first** with LFP storage and a generator failsafe. A hub cycles about 24 packs a day from its own roof, sells the surplus through a 230 V socket and keeps running when the grid does not. Electricity is not the constraint; **where you put the hub** is.\n\n## 2. \"Who pays for the battery?\"\n\nNobody buys it. The battery stays with the operator and the rider pays per swap — **Battery-as-a-Service**, about 425 KES per bike per day in our Kenyan model. The rider's bike costs less than a petrol one, the operator earns an annuity on the pack, and the battery risk sits with the people who have the data to manage it.\n\n## 3. \"How do you collect from a rider with no bank account?\"\n\nThrough the thing he cannot work without. Every vehicle carries IoT integrated with the controller: GPS, state of charge, tamper events, remote speed-limit and disable. Repayment runs on M-Pesa or Airtel Money, reconciled through bank APIs. Portfolios secured this way report **collection rates around 90%** (industry figures, not MargTor's own book). The vehicle is the credit file.\n\n## 4. \"What about duties and customs?\"\n\nAssemble inside a **special economic zone**. The Polish SEZ in Kenya — the only one in the country dedicated to one nation's investors — lets components enter duty-free and finished vehicles leave for Tanzania and DR Congo without Kenyan duty or VAT. For a fleet buyer that is roughly a quarter off the landed cost, and for a Polish exporter it is the structure BGK and KUKE recognise.\n\n## 5. \"Who runs it after you leave?\"\n\nThe people who were always going to: SACCOs, cooperatives, local technicians we train. MargTor's contracts are **long-term engagements** — equity or retainer over three years or more — precisely because a fleet that only works while the foreign engineer is on site is not a fleet, it is a demo.\n\n## The question I wish they asked\n\n\"What does a rider save?\" In our model about **38% of daily operating cost**, roughly 500 KES a day at 150 km and 180 KES per litre. Everything above — the hub, the battery, the telematics, the zone — exists to protect that number. If it holds, the lender gets paid, the operator scales and the investor gets a return. If it does not, no structure saves the project.\n\n*Gregory Radek is Co-Founder & CTO of MargTor Ltd. and East Africa's leading industry expert on electric two- and three-wheelers. Run your own numbers with the TCO calculator on margtor.africa.*","related":[{"slug":"field-note-01-border-ride-lessons","lang":"en","kind":"note","title":"Field Note 01 — What riding the whole Polish border on an electric motorcycle taught me about African fleets","summary":"In 2024 I rode an Amperi electric motorcycle along the entire border of Poland for a Guinness World Record. The hardware lessons from that ride are exactly the ones that decide whether a boda fleet in Kenya or Tanzania makes money.","tags":["field-notes","gregory-radek","range","thermal","charging","boda"],"updated":"2026-05-20","reading_minutes":3,"url":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/notes/field-note-01-border-ride-lessons","markdown_url":"https://margtor.africa/api/knowledge/notes/field-note-01-border-ride-lessons.md?lang=en","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"MargTor Ltd., https://margtor.africa"},"author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Gregory Radek","jobTitle":"Co-Founder & CTO, MargTor Ltd.","description":"East Africa's leading industry expert on electric two- and three-wheelers","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregradek/","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregradek/","https://electro.technology"]}},{"slug":"boda-boda-economy","lang":"en","kind":"article","title":"The boda-boda economy: why two-wheelers power East Africa","summary":"Motorcycle taxis move people, goods and money across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Understanding how riders earn, spend and borrow is the starting point for any electric fleet.","tags":["boda-boda","market","kenya","tanzania","uganda"],"updated":"2026-06-10","reading_minutes":3,"url":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/boda-boda-economy","markdown_url":"https://margtor.africa/api/knowledge/boda-boda-economy.md?lang=en","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"MargTor Ltd., https://margtor.africa"},"author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Gregory Radek","jobTitle":"Co-Founder & CTO, MargTor Ltd.","description":"East Africa's leading industry expert on electric two- and three-wheelers","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregradek/","sameAs":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregradek/","https://electro.technology"]}}],"translations":{"en":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/notes/field-note-02-investor-questions","sw":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/notes/field-note-02-investor-questions?lang=sw","pl":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/notes/field-note-02-investor-questions?lang=pl","fr":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/notes/field-note-02-investor-questions?lang=fr","zh":"https://margtor.africa/knowledge/notes/field-note-02-investor-questions?lang=zh"}}