Electric vehicle (EV) batteries will be properly managed to avoid harming the environment, Jimmy Gasore, the Minister of Infrastructure, said on January 7, during a plenary session in the lower chamber of parliament.

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While responding to MPs’ concerns about the government’s recent decision to halt the registration of new petrol motorcycles for public transport in Kigali, as part of efforts to reduce air pollution, the minister assured lawmakers that EV batteries, once no longer fit for vehicle use, will be repurposed to prevent environmental damage.

"When we are promoting adoption of EVs, we must also consider the issue of their batteries, which cannot simply be disposed of in landfills because they contain chemical elements that can cause pollution," he said, pointing out that the solution is to give the batteries a second life after they are no longer functional in vehicles.

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"A battery in a car needs to be powerful, lightweight, and compact. It may lose its capacity to power a vehicle but still retain the ability to serve other purposes, such as energy storage for homes or industrial use, especially in solar energy systems. This is because there is ample space, and weight is not an issue in those contexts."

According to Gasore, car batteries typically come with a 10-year warranty, but after that period, they can continue to store energy for another decade or more, particularly as the world shifts increasingly towards solar energy solutions.

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"In Rwanda, we already have a company that rehabilitates used EV batteries to repurpose them for energy storage outside of vehicles," the minister noted.

"This initiative will aid both Rwanda and the world in embracing solar energy, as one of the major costs involved is the price of batteries."

The Minister of Infrastructure noted that after their second life as energy storage devices, the batteries will eventually need to be recycled.

"In Rwanda, there is already a company involved in battery recycling."

With the expected increase in EV adoption, the minister emphasized the growing need for more recycling facilities.

He added that batteries contain valuable but harmful elements such as lithium and cobalt.

"These elements are not only hazardous to the environment if left unmanaged but also costly. Fortunately, various investors are keen to extract and reuse these materials for new battery production, thus ensuring that the leftover components will not harm the environment.”

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Gasore noted that there are about 6,000 electric motorbikes, which he said is still a small number compared to around 100,000 moto-cycles available in the country.

According to data from Rwanda Revenue Authority, 7,172 cars were imported from 2020 to 2024, with 512 or 7 per cent of them being electric, while 6,660 were hybrid.