GoCab deploys 100 EVs in Abidjan as part of Yango’s fleet

After raising $45 million in February, GoCab, the mobility fintech that operates Yango’s largest fleet in Côte d’Ivoire, has handed over 100 fully electric cars to driver-partners in Abidjan. 

The deployment is the first half of a 200-vehicle programme and gives the company one of Africa’s largest operational fleets of electric ride-hailing cars. It also makes Côte d’Ivoire the current front-runner in a race that has, until now, mostly played out on two and three wheels.

“For a professional driver, fuel is not a minor expense. It is one of the highest daily costs of doing business,” Moulaye Tabouré, the country manager and managing director of GoCab Côte d’Ivoire, said in a statement. “Reducing that cost by 60% to 80% can fundamentally transform a driver’s economics.”

The vehicles will operate mainly on GOYA, Yango’s premium ride-hailing service in the country.

Fuel is one of the highest daily costs of the job for drivers working through Yango’s platform. GoCab is layering that saving onto its drive-to-own structure, under which drivers make regular payments from their ride-hailing income over three years, after which the vehicle transfers to them. This is a model similar to the one that drove Moove, a Nigerian mobility fintech, to a $2 billion valuation.

GoCab is betting on those savings to onboard drivers. A full charge costs about 8,000 FCFA ($14) and covers up to 470 kilometres, while a petrol or diesel vehicle burns through 20,000 to 40,000 FCFA ($35 to $70) in fuel to travel the same distance, according to the company’s operating benchmarks. 

That works out to roughly a 60% to 80% reduction in energy costs. Over 10,000 kilometres, a driver could keep between 255,000 and 681,000 FCFA (about $444 to $1,186) that would otherwise go to the pump.

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