Electric mobilityActive

Roam Rapid / Roam Air (Roam Electric)

Roam designs and assembles electric motorcycles and buses for African markets from a plant in Nairobi. It began, per the Earthshot Prize's own account, as a research project at a Swedish university in 2017 before relocating its build and assembly operations to Kenya.

Nairobi, KenyaElectric motorcycles and busesNone
Image credit
Koinange Street, Nairobi, 2025. City context for Roam’s Kenya activities; no Roam vehicle is identified.Location context · Bahnfrend · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2025 · Resized; display cropImage source ↗Licence ↗
OperatorRoam (Roam Electric)
EcosystemElectric motorcycles and buses
StandardNone
StatusActive
LocationNairobi, Kenya
Overview

Inside the project

Its Roam Air motorcycle targets the commercial boda-boda market, and its Roam Rapid and Roam Move buses target Nairobi's mass-transit routes. The company reports testing 160 prototypes before its current designs.

Roam states a workforce that is 40% female and a fivefold year-on-year increase in the CO2 emissions it says it displaced in 2023 versus 2022. It was a 2022 Earthshot Prize finalist in the 'Clean Our Air' category and closed a $24m Series A round by the end of 2023.

160
Prototypes tested
40%
Female workforce
24M USD
Series A raised by end-2023

Objectives

  • Design and assemble electric motorcycles and buses in Africa for African markets
  • Serve Nairobi's boda-boda and mass-transit routes

Approach

  • Vehicles are designed and assembled in Nairobi; the Roam Air motorcycle and Roam Rapid/Roam Move buses are aimed respectively at commercial boda-boda riders and mass-transit routes.

Sources

Inspect 2 sources
  1. earthshotprize.org ↗https://earthshotprize.org/winners-finalists/roam/
  2. techweez.com ↗https://techweez.com/2022/10/19/roam-rapid-bus-launched-in-kenya/

Documented by one public source so far.

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