Aligned simulation models for simulating Africa’s electric minibus taxis

Planning for eventual electrification of transport in sub-Saharan Africa requires accurate simulation of its unique transport systems. The few studies that attempt to model electric minibus taxis – vehicles extensively used in sub-Saharan Africa’s public transport systems – vary greatly in their results. In this paper, we analyse, compare and correct the only two existing studies that project energy efficiency values of electric minibus taxis in the region. One of the studies projected an efficiency of 0.39kWh/km, while the other projected 0.93kWh/km. We carefully analyse the simulation tools and models and cumulatively applying corrections from literature and scientific analyses. As a result, we eliminate the discrepancy between the two simulation tools for a given data input and obtain a final efficiency estimation that ranges from 0.49–0.52kWh/km, depending on the input data.