Source: press release Roam | Kenyan electric mobility company Roam has unveiled the Roam Air Gen 3, the latest version of its electric motorcycle platform aimed squarely at Africa’s booming commercial two-wheeler market. Central to the launch is the new Roam Gen 3 battery, engineered to tackle three of the biggest pain points holding back electric adoption across the continent: slow charging, theft, and poor durability on tough roads.
The headline claim is charging speed. Roam says the Gen 3 battery is the fastest-charging unit on the African market, delivering more than one kilometre of range per minute. A 20% to 80% charge takes under 40 minutes at 2 kW, a significant step forward for boda boda riders, the commercial motorcycle taxi operators who form the backbone of urban transport across East Africa, for whom downtime directly means lost income.
The battery carries an IP67 water resistance rating, making it fully submersible, and sits inside an industrial-grade aluminium die-cast casing that Roam describes as drop-proof. The aluminium construction also helps with heat dissipation, an important consideration for riders operating in hot, high-intensity conditions day in, day out. It meets the AIS-156 international safety standard and comes with integrated GPS tracking, allowing both individual riders and fleet operators to locate the battery through the Roam app if it goes missing, as well as monitor battery health and fleet performance remotely. Charging remains flexible, with options at home or at Roam’s own charging locations.
The motorcycle itself has been built with African road realities in mind. The chassis uses 98% robotic welding for structural consistency and has been put through more than 200,000 vibration cycles under a 300 kg load to validate its durability. Roam backs the whole package with a 100,000 km battery guarantee, a number designed to give confidence not just to riders, but to the financing partners who make electric motorcycle ownership accessible in these markets.
Habib Lukaya, Roam’s Country Manager, framed the launch in practical terms: the Gen 3 was designed around the real challenges riders face every day, with every feature oriented towards keeping motorcycles on the road, cutting operating costs, and lifting daily earnings.
Roam was named Kenya’s fastest-growing company and Africa’s fastest-growing e-mobility company by the Financial Times in 2025. The company previously made headlines with a 6,000-kilometre solar-supported ride from Nairobi to Stellenbosch on the Roam Air, and has received recognition as an Earthshot Prize finalist and a Norrsken Impact/100 startup.
