Electric safari cars are the newest offering at a small handful of camps across Kenya, and they promise to both protect the environment and enhance the experience by driving in near-total silence. As of early 2021, Nairobi-based company Opibus converted 10 Land Cruiser safari vehicles from diesel to electric.
“We deploy solar [power] and convert vehicles, so that the whole ecosystem creates an off-grid safari system that is independent of the surroundings,” says Albin Wilson of Opibus. “Sustainability-wise, it’s huge.” Once Opibus converts a safari vehicle from diesel to electric, the car charges via a solar panel station. There’s no need for the vehicles to burn fuel or make use of the diesel that is trucked into Kenya’s nature conservancies and stored in underground tanks, where it threatens to seep out.
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