A UK-based emobility start-up has received a £1.2m grant to help develop a sustainable energy infrastructure in Rwanda.

OX Delivers said the money from Energy Catalyst, an Innovate UK programme, will be used to demonstrate the benefits of a low-carbon energy chargepoint infrastructure and provide rural communities with affordable transport.

The money comes as the company readies its next generation affordable all-electric OX4 truck for production.

OX Delivers already provides ‘transport-as-a-service’ to people in Rwanda and it said it was dedicated to expanding the business model across the global South, starting in Africa.

It said for less than $1, an OX Delivers customer can transport a sack of goods to market across poor roads and in a matter of hours, rather than days.

The transport-as-a-service model helps farmers and traders to access larger markets further from their home and it creates a self-reinforcing cycle of economic and social growth within local communities.

Simon Davis, founder & chief executive of OX Delivers, said: “We are delighted to not only receive funding from Energy Catalyst but also have the OX Delivers transport-as-a-service model validated as part of the solution required to deliver clean energy, advance economic growth and transform lives in the global South.”

“We will leverage this grant to demonstrate the benefits of a low-carbon energy ‘charge-point’ infrastructure and provide rural communities with affordable transport.

“This will support the electrification of two of our current depots to create flagship projects which will further strengthen the OX Delivers business case.”

The original OX Truck, designed by professor Gordon Murray in 2016, was the world’s first flat-pack truck and the first vehicle designed specifically for Africa in forty years.

Since then, the OX team has advanced the truck design and it is now ten times cheaper to run than existing alternatives.

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