Kenya's Mobius, maker of rugged cars for African roads, calls it a day
Kenya's Mobius Motors, which started making rugged, low-priced SUVs designed for Africa's roads a decade ago, has decided to stop operating due to financial challenges, a company statement and a shareholder source said on Tuesday.
Mobius, founded by a London-born investor who experienced the continent's bumpy roads while working for a forestry company in Kenya, found tax hikes in the East African country meant its business model was no longer sustainable, the source at one of the company's shareholders told Reuters.
"The business could not sustain itself. There were some challenges," said the source, asking not to be named.
The owners considered moving production to a different country, but that option was rejected due to the logistical challenges of moving the existing assembly line from Nairobi, the shareholder added.
Mobius initially produced a boxy, no-frills SUV designed for the modest budgets of African consumers, going for 1.3-million Kenyan shillings, equivalent to about $13 000 at the time and roughly half the price of an imported second-hand SUV.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation