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Ethiopia made history in 2024 by becoming the first country to ban the sale and import of new internal combustion-powered vehicles. Despite the predictions of the anti-EV hysterics, they’re doing just fine — but the process hasn’t been without its challenges!
We first covered Ethiopia’s decision to ban the sale and import of ICE vehicles back in 2024, but while there were certainly environmental considerations involved, the deciding factors were economical, rather than ecological.
Through 2023, Ethiopia had been importing massive amounts of refined petroleum imports — $4 billion on refined fuel imports alone, according to Angolan Mining Oil and Gas — making petroleum one of the country’s largest import expenses and a major drain on its scarce foreign exchange budget.
With electric vehicles on the other hand, Ethopia has been able to assert its energy independence by creating its own clean fuel. “Over the last decade,” write the environment watchdogs at Climate Action Tracker. “Ethiopia has prioritized the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and Koysha hydropower projects, with capacity of nearly 6 GW and ~2 GW, respectively. The GERD is expected to double Ethiopia’s hydropower-based electricity generation once fully operational.”
Africa’s largest hydroelectric project on the Blue Nile, the GERD was officially inaugurated in September of 2025 and will provide clean, emissions-free power to the nearly 45% of Ethiopia’s population currently without electricity in their homes — and that means positive revenue for Ethiopia and its neighbors, even at the paltry $0.1/kWh the dam sells its energy for.
“For the government (of Ethiopia), the growth in EV sales is a vindication of its import policy, which in turn has been made possible by its investments in electricity infrastructure,” reports Bloomberg (paywalled). “(With) the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam … the country has excess generation capacity, which it sells to neighboring Kenya, Tanzania and Djibouti.”
As you can imagine, the rest of the world’s governments and transportation analysts are keenly aware of Ethiopia’s electric experiment — and many have expressed surprise at how well the African nation, which didn’t have much charging infrastructure to speak of when the ban was enacted, has handled the transition.
“The Ethiopia story is fascinating,” explains Colin McKerracher, an analyst and head of clean transport at BloombergNEF. “What you’re seeing in places that don’t make a lot of vehicles of any type, they’re saying, ‘Well, look, if I’m going to import the cars anyway, then I’d rather import less oil. We may as well import the one that cleans up local air quality and is cheaper to buy.’”
I couldn’t have said it better, myself.
By late 2025, about 115,000 EVs are on Ethiopian roads, representing 8.3% of the total vehicle fleet according to EV24.Africa, with EV owners spending about $4 per month on charging, compared to an average $27 per month for gasoline — a massive difference in a country whose median individual income is near $50/mo.
So, despite some weirdness here and there and much work still to be done, I think we can call this move a win for Ethiopia. Here’s hoping other nations grow a pair and follow suit.
Source links throughout post; featured image via Wikimedia Commons.
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