African EV soonicorn Spiro opens seventh mega battery-swap station in Rwanda

According to Gagan Gupta, Rwanda’s overall motorcycle sales grew 28% last year, largely driven by electric motorcycle sales, which recorded 700 per cent growth in a single year.

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Africa’s largest electric mobility company, Spiro, has opened its seventh mega swap station in Rwanda, just over a year after the company activated more than 100 battery-swapping stations across the country. The new mega swap station in Rwanda comes at a time when electric motorcycle demand in Rwanda continues to outpace expectations, with the country’s electric motorcycle sales rising nearly 700% in a single year.

According to Gagan Gupta, founder and Chairman of Spiro, Rwanda’s overall motorcycle sales grew 28% last year, largely driven by electric motorcycle sales, which recorded 700 per cent growth in a single year. As electric motorcycle sales outpace ICE sales, Spiro is building the charging network to keep them on the road.

The newly opened mega swap station, Spiro’s seventh in Rwanda, can now accommodate six to twelve times more batteries in a single location than earlier stations, allowing riders to swap depleted batteries for charged ones without waiting in line.

None of this would have happened without a government that committed early…,” said Gupta in a LinkedIn post. “And of course, without the amazing teams who have been working on designing this innovation long before demand called for it!

The expansion follows a network build-out that Spiro announced roughly a year earlier, when it activated more than 100 battery-swapping stations across Rwanda, extending its energy network into Kigali’s Gasabo, Nyarugenge and Kicukiro districts, the Western Province’s Rusizi and Nyamasheke, the Southern Province’s Muhanga and Kamonyi, and the Eastern Province’s Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Rwamagana and Kayonza, with plans to reach every province in the country. 

Founded in 2014, Spiro says it has surpassed 600 swap stations and more than 20 million battery swaps, making it Africa’s largest and fastest-growing energy network powered by battery-swapping infrastructure, spanning eight operational countries. The company has now deployed more than 100,000 electric motorcycles and 2,500 smart-swap stations across seven active markets — Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon.

The Rwanda rollout comes on the back of a major capital push. In June 2026, Spiro closed a $215 million equity round backed by Impact Fund Denmark, Equitane and FEDA, earmarked for expanding its battery-swapping network, strengthening its industrial footprint and entering new markets such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. Weeks later, the round grew to $270 million after Chinese growth-stage investor NewTrails Capital committed $55 million, pushing Spiro’s valuation toward the $1 billion mark.

Spiro’s 7th mega swap station aligns with the company’s broader sustainability push. In its first sustainability report published in July 2026, Spiro aims to reach net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040, targeting up to 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided annually from product use by 2030. The company is also evaluating 80-125 KVA on-site solar installations at selected swap stations to cut grid dependency, alongside efficiency measures that have already delivered a 15–25% reduction in energy use at its assembly facilities.