It begins: Ethiopia set to become first country to ban internal combustion cars

dual_sport_dork , 5 months ago

This is easy(ier) for Ethiopia because they already have one of if not the lowest rates of car ownership per capita in the world. 2 per 1000 people. Practically nobody there owns a car to begin with. And note the repeated distinction of “car” and not “vehicle.” Like most African nations (and Southeast Asia, and South America) the majority of people who have motorized personal transportation at all don’t own a car; instead they own a small motorbike.

Even so, according to the sources I found the motorized vehicle ownership rate per capita in general in Ethiopia is only approximately 6 in 1000 – motorbikes included. So this isn’t a very big Band-Aid for them to rip off compared to, say, most places in Europe. Or the US.

PugJesus , 5 months ago

But hey, good for them. It's like why so much of Sub-Saharan Africa ended up with massive increases in mobile phone usage despite relatively low landline penetration - it's much easier to adopt something than to replace an existing infrastructure.

dual_sport_dork , 5 months ago

Yes, and not having a big money lobby behind whatever the old thing was fighting tooth and nail against progress probably helps, too.

Landsharkgun , 5 months ago

This is like jumping technology tiers in Civ. Good for them.

Akasazh , 5 months ago

It seems like this article doesn’t hold up too scrutiny:

kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/…/4961022

Twoafros , 5 months ago

Ethiopian here. The government has already banned import of combustion cars a few months ago. I think it was a great move both environmental reasons and for saving money by reducing oil imports as more and more people switch to electric cars.