Why Ethiopia chose EVs before its chargers were ready

Bloomberg Originals follows a switch driven by fuel-import costs, cheap hydropower and a tax incentive to assemble electric vehicles locally.

Channel: Bloomberg Originals Story of November 4, 2026Trari Newsroom

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Why this story? 964,291 views so far, and here is what is inside it.

The World's Most Aggressive EV Push Isn't in China | Bloomberg Primer

Fuel was draining the budget. Ethiopia's move toward electric cars began less as a climate pledge than as an answer to an import bill it could no longer afford, Bloomberg Originals explains in its latest Primer documentary.

The country banned imports of new gasoline-powered cars in 2024. Bloomberg puts annual fuel-import spending at up to $5 billion, against a backdrop of debt default. Electricity generated at home offered an alternative to buying fuel abroad, even though the infrastructure to support electric driving was far from ready.

For Addis Ababa taxi driver Natanael Tadesse, that national calculation becomes a monthly household saving. He describes spending substantially less on electricity and maintenance after switching to an EV. Reporter Akshat Rathi connects those savings to Ethiopia's cheap, largely hydroelectric power supply, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

But cheap electricity and convenient charging are not the same thing. The report finds limited public chargers, drivers relying mainly on home charging and blackouts interrupting the supply. Buying the car in the first place also remains beyond the means of many households.

The documentary's factory visit shows another part of the policy: Ethiopia wants assembly work, not just imported vehicles. Fully built cars attract an import tariff, while completely knocked-down kits can enter tariff-free. At BKG Manufacturing, workers assemble electric minibuses from Chinese components while learning the production process.

That gives Bloomberg's story a wider subject than private car ownership. The minibuses bring public transport into the picture, while the assembly line shows how a decision about fuel imports can also become a decision about where manufacturing jobs go.

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The numbers

The documentary has drawn close to a million views since publication. Its first-day comment section was more than seven times busier than usual for Bloomberg Originals' regular videos.

subscribers

5,190,000

▲ 10,000 in the last 7 days

total views

1,228,564,975

views per day

1,156,407

typical day: 681,580

the video

views

964,291

likes

8,881

comments

876

days online

2

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

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5,190,000

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5,180,000

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4,700,000

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4,180,000

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4,060,000

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3,640,000

As of November 4, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.