African e-bike manufacturer Spiro will begin producing the majority of its components on the continent by next year, CEO Gagan Gupta told Semafor.
The Dubai-headquartered company’s current supply of EVs comes from the assembly of parts imported from different countries, but it aims to make 90% of components in-country by the first quarter of 2027, Gupta said. Spiro has deployed more than 100,000 electric motorcycles and 2,500 battery swap stations in seven East and West African countries, and raised $215 million this month to expand into new countries, beginning with DR Congo and Ethiopia.
Sales of electric cars in Africa rose nearly six-fold between 2023 and 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. Adoption of EVs has been spurred by domestic startups like Spiro, Roam, and BasiGo, as well as the expansion of giants such as China’s BYD, whose share of EV car sales in Africa has spiked from 4% to 35% in just two years, the IEA said.