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Across Kampala, battery swapping is transforming the daily routine of electric boda-boda riders. In minutes, a spent battery is out, a charged one is in, and the rider is gone. No waiting. No fuel queue.
Uganda had approximately 150 battery swapping stations in mid-2024. That number has more than doubled, surpassing 350 nationwide by late 2025. Each station puts more electric motorcycles on the road but also adds a new electricity load. Which raises a pressing question: is the grid ready?
A new World Bank study, prepared at the request of Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development with support from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the Quality Infrastructure Investment Partnership, answers that question and maps what needs to happen before this market takes off.
Why motorcycles are leading
Uganda’s electric transition did not begin with passenger cars. It began where everyday mobility actually happens. Motorcycles account for more than 60% of Uganda’s registered vehicle fleet, with over 400,000 in Greater Kampala alone. They carry people, goods, and livelihoods across a largely informal transport system. They are also where electric mobility makes immediate economic sense.
Private operators, including Zembo, Gogo, and Spiro, have built battery swapping networks that spare riders long charging times. The study estimates an electric boda-boda could save a rider approximately UGX 1 million ($255) a year compared with a petrol motorcycle. For someone earning one fare at a time, that is a meaningful difference.
The market is still early. High upfront costs and limited access to affordable credit remain real barriers, even where operating costs are lower over time. The runway ahead is long though. Based on three scenarios developed by the study, Uganda’s fleet could reach between 800,000 and 4 million electric vehicles by 2040, with two-wheelers dominant throughout.
Private operators are driving early growth. The public sector’s role is to make it easier for that growth to scale by clearing barriers around grid connections, land access, permitting, and finance.
The charging pattern matters more than the total demand
By 2030, electric vehicles in Greater Kampala could consume between approximately 290 and 1,100 gigawatt-hours per year. At the system level, that is manageable. The real challenge is not how much electricity is needed. It is when and where it is drawn.
The study’s modeling makes this concrete. Under moderate growth, electric vehicles could add approximately 99 megawatts to system peak demand with limited smart charging, or just 60 megawatts if charging is better coordinated. Under the upper bound accelerated growth scenario, the difference is even starker: approximately 196 megawatts versus 93.
Same vehicles. Same journeys. Same annual energy. What changes is the timing.
Where charging coincides with existing network constraints, the effects cascade: overloaded lines and transformers, voltage drops, higher losses, and costly reinforcement. The bottleneck is distribution, not generation.
Charge smarter, invest better
Smart charging, which adjusts when and how fast batteries charge based on grid conditions, can dramatically smooth that peak. The study estimates that wider smart charging in Greater Kampala could reduce the modeled annual cost of additional energy losses from approximately $21 million to $10 million, while also reducing network reinforcement needs.
Battery swapping stations are a practical place to start. Much of the electric motorcycle load is concentrated at facilities run by a handful of companies rather than dispersed across thousands of private chargers. That makes coordination feasible. Pilots can begin where demand is already visible and commercially managed. The study’s swapping model was built on real operating data from Uganda.
