Two years ago, Moses’ mechanic gave him advice that cost the mechanic his business. Moses was a regular, often bringing his commercial three-wheeler, popularly known as keke in Nigeria, to the workshop. Perhaps that frequency is what led the mechanic to suggest Moses rip the failing petrol engine out of his keke and let a startup called Swap replace it with an electric motor.
He told TechCabal he has not visited a mechanic since the replacement.
“Since I started, I have not fixed my engine,” Moses said in an interview at a battery swapping station in Magodo run by Swap, a Nigerian startup that converts petrol kekes to electric kekes across its five stations in Lagos.
He bought his keke secondhand with its engine already failing. It had been worn down by Lagos traffic, bad fuel, bad roads, and compounding neglect. After his mechanic sent him to Swap, Moses registered, and Swap converted his vehicle for free.
Now, twice a day, he rides to the battery station in Magodo, one of the most expensive high-income neighbourhoods in the city, and swaps a dead battery for a charged one. Within two minutes he’s back to work.
