Addis Ababa Program
Three days of high-level dialogue, industry engagement, practical workshops and collaboration advancing Africa’s electric mobility transition.
Industry Tours & Workshops
Pre-summit activities and Road to Africa networking.
Industry Tour
Organised by ITDP.
Circular Value Chains for the E-Mobility Transition
A battery retired from a vehicle may still have years of useful life. Whether that value becomes local energy storage, recyclable material or exported waste depends on the testing, ownership and recovery systems Africa builds now.
Financing the Transition
Enough pilots. The real test is whether an e-mobility business can survive local interest rates, currency exposure and real customer demand after the grant funding ends.
Organised by , MobilityX Africa. By invitation only.
Future of Interoperability Charging in Africa
Will a driver be able to cross three African countries with one vehicle, one account and one way to pay? Decisions on connectors, roaming and data will determine whether that journey becomes ordinary or almost impossible.
Continental Coordination Framework & Policy
Vehicles cross borders. Capital crosses borders. Policy usually stops at them. A workable framework must separate what countries should decide independently from what only makes sense when neighbours act together.
Grid & EV Integration
Imagine fifty buses returning to one depot at 18:00 and plugging in together. The engineering is possible; the tariff, grid capacity, storage and cost-sharing model may not be. That is the integration challenge.
Official Reception
Conference Day 1
Policy, investment, partnerships and inclusive mobility.
Registration, Coffee & Networking
Official Opening
MC & Opening:
, Minister of Transport and Logistics of Ethiopia
Driving Change through Policy
Green ambition means little while tax codes, import rules and electricity tariffs continue to reward diesel. The transition begins when government policy makes the cleaner option the practical option.
The Nordic Perspective
The Nordic transition offers evidence, not a template. Its most transferable lesson is not a particular subsidy; it is the discipline of keeping taxation, infrastructure and procurement aligned long enough for a market to respond.
, Ambassador of Sweden to Ethiopia
, Ambassador-Designate of Norway to Ethiopia
, Ambassador of Denmark to Ethiopia
Moderator: , Thought Leader, Nordic-Africa EV Summit & Road to Africa
Driving an Inclusive E-Mobility Transition
Cleaner cars for a privileged minority will not transform African mobility. Progress has to be felt in fares, safety, access, employment and the daily journeys of people whom today’s transport systems routinely overlook.
, AT4D
Investing in the EV Transition
Why do investors praise the opportunity and still decline the deal? Usually because market enthusiasm has not yet become credible demand, defensible economics and a believable route from one successful deployment to one hundred.
, MobilityX Africa
Financing the Transition
A fleet earning shillings, birr or kwacha should not be expected to carry uncontrolled dollar or euro risk for seven years. Finance built around the preferences of international capital can destroy an otherwise viable local transport business.
, Finnfund
Moderator: , MobilityX Africa
Signing Ceremony
Networking Break
Road to COP32
By COP32, the strongest African position will be a portfolio, not a promise: bankable projects, quantified investment needs and implementation already under way.
Road to COP32
Who owns the budget? Who carries the risk? What must be delivered by next year? A flagship project becomes real only when those answers are public and the partners are accountable to the same timetable.
, Smart Freight Centre
A Global Perspective on Charging Interoperability
Other markets learned interoperability the expensive way, after incompatible equipment was installed and users were already frustrated. Africa still has the advantage of deciding early.
, CharIN e.V.
Read More →Exploring an Interoperable Model
Five charging networks should not require five apps and five accounts. A shared service layer could make different systems feel like one, but only if operators trust the rules for certification, roaming, data and ownership.
Moderator: , CharIN e.V.
The Big Interoperability Debate: What Model Works for Africa?
“Technology neutrality” sounds sensible until every operator chooses a different closed system. Is one continental framework realistic, or would regional models move faster without surrendering the market to proprietary lock-in?
Read More →Lunch
Driving an Inclusive E-Mobility Transition
Start with the passenger who cannot board, the woman who changes her route after dark and the worker priced out of the new service. Their journeys reveal whether inclusion exists beyond the policy document.
, AT4D
, Flone Initiative
Advancing Growth-Stage Investment in African E-Mobility
Ten vehicles can be managed through improvisation. One thousand expose every weakness in economics, governance, maintenance and data. Scale is a different business, not simply a larger pilot.
, MobilityX Africa
Future African Cities
An electric traffic jam is still a traffic jam. Cleaner vehicles must arrive alongside mass transit, better land use and streets designed around movement rather than car ownership.
, FK Mobility
VC Capital to the EV Space
Venture capital wants exponential growth; mobility is full of vehicles, chargers and operational complexity. Some models can bridge that contradiction. Many cannot, and forcing them into a VC structure can damage a perfectly good business.
, MobilityX Africa
Electric Bus Rapid Transit and the E-Bus Project
Buy the buses first and the problems arrive later: inadequate depot power, poorly placed chargers and schedules that ignore charging time. Successful electrification begins with the route and operating model, then specifies the vehicle.
, ITDP
, Advanced Mobility Centre
Guarantees and the Role of the Banking System
Local banks are being asked to lend against assets they cannot yet value or resell. A guarantee can buy the market time to build evidence, but it should never become camouflage for weak economics.
, MobilityX Africa
Offgrid - Ongrid Charging
Grid, solar, batteries or a hybrid? The answer changes with every route, depot and duty cycle. Reliability and total cost should choose the architecture, not loyalty to a preferred technology.
, Swan Management
Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU)
The Power of Research and Academia
No local data means imported assumptions, cautious investors and avoidable policy mistakes. Universities can close that gap by becoming independent testing grounds for batteries, duty cycles, charging behaviour and grid impact.
Networking Coffee / Tea
Conference Day 2
Infrastructure, corridors, circularity and continental coordination.
Registration, Coffee & Networking
Conference Day 2 Opening
MC & Opening:
Continental EV Framework
Fifty-four isolated EV markets will struggle to attract manufacturing or support cross-border mobility. The framework does not need to make every country identical; it needs to make their markets compatible.
(MSc, CIPM), Head of Transport and Mobility Division at the African Union Commission
Standardisation: Creating the Roadmap for African E-Mobility
Standards are market power disguised as technical detail. Connectors, testing rules and communication protocols will determine which vehicles enter, which companies compete and whether today’s infrastructure becomes tomorrow’s stranded asset.
Robert Tama Lisinge, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
, Norwegian EV Association
, the electric MISSION
, EU Delegation to Ethiopia
From Olympic Champion to EV Champion
Two Olympic gold medals and 27 world records made Haile Gebrselassie a global icon. Back home, he was also among the entrepreneurs willing to bet early on electric mobility, bringing Hyundai EVs into Ethiopia through Marathon Motors Engineering and supporting local assembly before the market looked obvious.
, Haile Resorts & Marathon Motors Engineering
Moderator: , Nordic-Africa EV Summit and Road to Africa
Silent Maritime Experience
On a Brim Explorer vessel, passengers hear the landscape instead of the engine. Silence became a premium experience, turning electrification from a compliance cost into part of the product itself.
, CEO, Brim Explorer
Electrifying Heavy-Duty Vehicles in Africa
A truck earns money while moving. Every charging decision therefore touches payload, route energy, driver time and asset utilisation. The first viable HDV routes will be those where cleaner operation already strengthens the business case.
, Smart Freight Centre
Transport Corridors and Heavy-Duty Electrification
One missing charger can break a 1,500-kilometre route. Corridors must be planned end to end across utilities, borders and jurisdictions; otherwise diesel keeps winning because it works everywhere.
, State Minister, Ministry of Transport and Logistics, Ethiopia
, Smart Freight Centre
Signing Ceremony
Networking Break
Digital Thought Leader
The value of mobility data appears when a fleet manager can see energy, charging and maintenance together. That visibility can predict failures, shift demand and keep expensive assets working instead of waiting.
Connectivity, Digital Infrastructure and User Experience
The plug may be visible, but software decides whether it works for the user. Data access, payments, cybersecurity and open interfaces will define the charging experience long after the concrete has been poured.
The Journey of EV Materials
Cobalt, lithium, graphite, manganese: the journey begins in African ground and too often ends with Africa buying back the finished technology. The missing chapters are refining, components, maintenance and recovery.
From Critical Minerals to Circular Value Chains
Export raw minerals. Import finished batteries. Call it a green transition. That model changes the technology but preserves the old extractive economy; circular value chains offer a route to something more ambitious.
, Nordic Circular Hotspot
Lunch
EV Framework for Africa with EV Associations
National EV associations already hold much of the knowledge a continental framework needs. Connecting their data, policy positions and technical expertise could produce a credible African industry voice without creating another distant institution.
, the electric MISSION
Moderator: , Norwegian EV Association
EV Charging & User Experience
The map says the charger exists. The driver arrives and finds it offline, locked or impossible to pay for. That single experience can do more damage to EV confidence than any marketing campaign can repair.
, Eazy Power Plc
Localisation
What percentage of a locally assembled EV is truly local? Count the engineering, components, software, suppliers and intellectual property, not only the final bolts tightened inside an African factory.
EV Skills Development
The vehicles may arrive before the people trained to maintain them. Curricula, certification and industry placements have to catch up before a skills shortage turns imported technology into idle equipment.
, UNIDO
, Advanced Mobility Centre
Circular Deep Dive
One used battery can become four very different things: a repaired vehicle pack, stationary storage, recyclable material or hazardous waste. Diagnostics and traceability decide which future is technically safe and commercially sensible.
, Nordic Circular Hotspot
Powering Heavy-Duty Vehicles
Charge overnight at the depot, during loading at the destination or rapidly along the corridor? The route and dwell time provide the answer; the charger should follow the operation.
, Brim Explorer
, Kabisa Electric
EV Safaris
In a safari vehicle, silence changes the encounter. Predictable routes and abundant solar power make the proposition attractive; dust, heat and remote maintenance make it a serious engineering test.
Corridors as the New Growth Frontiers
A charging stop can become an energy hub, maintenance centre, logistics node and market for local services. Corridors become growth frontiers when infrastructure is designed to create economic activity between the major cities, not merely connect them.
, Road to Africa & Intro Africa
, Smart Freight Centre
, Kabisa Electric
Networking Coffee / Tea
Nairobi to Addis
by E-Bus
An electric journey across East Africa, connecting cities, communities and the people shaping the future of public transport.
Thematics
Interoperability, Grid & HDV
The physical and digital systems required to accelerate electric mobility, from urban charging networks to regional freight corridors.
Continental EV Coordination
The standards, policy frameworks and cross-border cooperation needed to create a connected and inclusive African e-mobility ecosystem.
Financing the Transition
Bringing together investors, governments, development finance institutions and industry to unlock capital for Africa’s transition.
EV Circularity
Building resilient value chains spanning critical minerals, manufacturing, battery reuse, recycling and the full EV lifecycle.
About the Addis Ababa Summit
14–16 September 2026 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
The Addis Ababa edition of the Noridc-Africa EV Summit brings together African and European leaders across policy, industry, energy, finance, and transport to advance the next phase of electric mobility across the continent.
To be hosted in one of Africa’s most dynamic and fast-evolving mobility markets, the summit focuses on moving from pilot projects to scalable, bankable systems. Through high-level dialogue, industry engagement, and site visits, participants will explore how electric mobility can be deployed across cities, transport corridors, and regional trade networks.
The programme is designed to connect decision-makers with practical opportunities, aligning policy, infrastructure, energy systems, and investment to enable real implementation.
As part of the broader Africa EV Summit platform, the Addis Ababa convening serves as a working arena for partnership and execution, supporting long-term collaboration between European and African actors and contributing to the development of coordinated market frameworks for electric mobility across Africa.