TRī is an early-stage electric mobility company offering affordable three-wheeled vehicles to professional drivers on a lease-to-own scheme.
Based in Tanzania, where 50% of transportation on the roads is comprised of two- and three-wheeled taxis, the company intends to make it easy and affordable for drivers to switch to electric vehicles. Most taxi drivers are unbanked solopreneurs without access to formal finance, who depend on rented petrol vehicles that cost up to a half of their daily revenues. Ever-increasing fuel expenditure, when combined with high vehicle maintenance costs, is typically pushing their incomes below the poverty line as their net profit drops to just 7% of their revenues on average.
TRī seeks to support drivers to become vehicle owners by offering fully maintained electric three-wheelers through its lease-to-own scheme. This enables drivers to immediately double their daily income from $5 to $10, making the decision to drive an e-vehicle even more enticing. Drivers can also take state-of-the-art speed chargers on the road with them, which enables them to travel up to 200km a day. This innovation reduces anxiety around range limitations often associated with electric vehicles.
Founded by Niko Kadjaia and Kunze Peng in 2021, TRī brings together a team of international experts with a wealth of experience in sub-Saharan Africa. With over 100,000 3-wheelers on the road in Dar Es Salaam, 90% of which are providing a form of transport to the public, TRī has the potential to create a huge impact in the transport sector.
With financial support from PREO, the company aims to demonstrate the validity of its financial model as well as the stability of its operational model. In addition, advancing a widespread transition to electric vehicles has the potential to greatly reduce the carbon footprint of drivers compared to the dominant petrol models, as well as improving air quality and noise pollution in urban areas. As the Tanzanian electricity grid decarbonises, charging the batteries from mains electricity will contribute to fewer and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
TRī also strongly promotes gender equality in its workforce and through its customer base: 50% of the board and 40% of the management team are women. To further support gender inclusion in the sector, the company also intends to list the women enrolled with the Kinondoni and Ubungo programme for disabled women drivers as preferential customers, to further support gender inclusion in the sector.