MAASAI MARA, Kenya — Within the Maasai Mara Nationwide Reserve, the Toyota 4×4 Land Cruiser of tour information and driver Sylvester Mukenye glides silently previous a herd of grazing elephants, then previous a delight of lions mendacity within the grass.

The animals are utterly unperturbed by the proximity of the automobile as a result of its diesel engine has been changed by an electrical motor that eliminates the rumbling noise and, simply as importantly, reduces the emission of diesel fumes.

“If you happen to drive right here silently, you’ll, in fact, get a lot nearer to animals, particularly the elephants that we’re subsequent to proper now, as a result of there are not any vibrations on the bottom and there are not any fumes that they get the odor from like in different automobiles,” Mukenye mentioned.

His automobile was transformed by Opibus, a Nairobi-based Kenyan-Swedish firm based in 2017. It’s, for now, the one firm in Kenya that converts off-road safari automobiles from diesel and gasoline to electrical energy.

Off-road automobiles are a standard sight in Maasai Mara however these are the primary within the normally carbon-heavy enterprise of safari excursions to be fully powered by electrical batteries.

Wanjiru Kamau, {an electrical} engineer at Opibus, mentioned the corporate to this point has transformed 10 automobiles utilized in Kenyan sport parks, together with three within the Maasai Mara. Together with being extra environmentally pleasant than diesel engines, the electrical motors reduce working prices by half, she added.

“In Kenya our gas costs are at all times rising. … Why not save on that?” she informed Reuters on the Opibus workshop, the place assembled automobiles had been in varied phases of electrification.

Kamau mentioned her firm makes use of 35 % regionally made supplies and goals ultimately to make use of solely native supplies.

George Obulutsa contributed to this story.