Remember the Nyayo Pioneer car? The Vehicle that could not complete its maiden trip during its launch? The aborted 'Made in Kenya' car dream!
Today, its no longer a dream but a reality.
Meet Kenya's own vehicle: Mobius Motors II.
The Company
Mobius Motors designs, manufactures and sells highly durable, highly affordable vehicles in Kenya for Africa's mass market. Mobius is reimagining the car; designing their vehicles around common road terrain, transport usage and consumer income profiles across the region. They are not just building vehicles more suited to local demand, but transport platforms that empower local entrepreneurs to run profitable transportation businesses with Mobius vehicles to end-users in their
communities.
MOBIUS TWO
Mobius Two was first announced as a form of inexpensive, go-anywhere transport for Africa with a local price of 950,000 Kenyan shillings. This makes the Mobius II about one-third the cost of a new subcompact like a Toyota Corolla and about the same price as a ten-year-old Corolla .
Mobius II has been engineered as a highly rugged, versatile and reliable vehicle ideally suited to the degraded roads common across much of rural Africa. The company has already received pre-orders for the Mobius II vehicles and will begin the concept development of its next-generation vehicle, Mobius III, scheduled for production launch in 2016.
So what is in the SUV?
Buyers will get an eight-seater, zero-frills - no air conditioning or windows – machine , powered by a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine with 86 horsepower and 94 pound-feet of torque.
The tubular-framed SUV has a top speed of about 75 miles per hour , weighs 2,805 pounds, has nine inches of ground clearance and can carry 1,375 pounds worth of cargo.
Mobius Motors in its preparations to launch their first production vehicle
in Kenya got finances with a convertible debt led by Richard Parsons and Ronald Lauder's Pan-African Investment Company.
The investment helped Mobius II, launch into the market and establish its brand as a high quality carmaker building vehicles specifically designed for Africa's mass market.
