Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206

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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/seta

Original article

Exploring the adoption of e-bicycle for student mobility in rural and urban
areas of Tanzania
Kenedy Aliila Greyson a, Gerutu Bosinge Gerutu b, Charles Hamisi Mohamed c,
Pius Victor Chombo c, *
a
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 2958, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 2958, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
c
Department of Electrical Engineering, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 2958, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Education plays a key role in socio-economic development. Transport to school is the main obstacle for students
E-bicycle in Sub Saharan African to acquire better educational achievement. In Tanzania, urban roads are heavily con­
Mobility gested, and long traffic jams hinder early arrival to schools whereas in rural areas schools are remotely located.
Students
Electrically assisted bicycle, simply e-bicycle, presents a promising alternative means of individual commuting.
Energy
Saving
However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the deployment of e-bicycle for student mobility. This paper
addresses the existing issue of access to education for Tanzania’s students and explore the possible alternatives of
using e-bicycle to get to school. The implementation is done in three different fashions: by purchasing a new
complete e-bicycle, purchasing traditional bicycle and conversion kit separately; purchasing a conversion kit
only. Findings reveal that student mobility by e-bicycle serves nearly half of annual bus fare, depending on the
motor power. Moreover, electrifying the traditional bicycle is the cheapest option (90 US$ to 200 US$). For
students with no traditional bicycle, scenario 2 fits them better (costing 190 US$ to 300 US$) than purchasing a
new e-bicycle (490 US$ to 500 US$). Moreover, e-bicycle is expected to save the commuting time to about 75 to
80% in urban and rural schools, respectively.

usually fall into several categories such as electric trains, e-buses, e-

Introduction
In recent years, electric vehicles (EVs) have been drawing much
attention among researchers and stakeholders due to their remarkable
attributes toward greener transportation. The need for clean mobility
has been significantly driven by urbanization which has increased the
demand for motorization [1,2]. Consequently, the energy consumption
in commuting has been closely associated to carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions growth [1,2,3,4] and numerous adverse effects on public
health and environment [4]. Reduction of CO2 can be useful in pre­
venting the global warming, premature deaths [4], and climate changes
and improve air quality. In that context, the widespread of EVs could
bring substantial changes for community not only the technologies
employed for individual mobility, but also shifting our economies from
fossil fuel dependency and finally lessening the carbon footprint of the
traditional modes of transportation [5]. To date, the transition from
traditional vehicles to EVs has been strongly assisted by Lithium-ion
battery technology [6]; owing high power and energy density [7]. EVs
trucks, e-motorcycles, e-scooters, or e-bicycles. E-bicycle, an electrically
assisted bicycle, is environmentally friendly having zero road emissions
compared to other modes of transport such as traditional bicycles, buses,
motorcycles and cars [8]. Besides, e-bicycle has become a leader in in­
dividual mobility specifically in limited pollution cities, areas with se­
vere traffic obstruction and limited parking lots [9,10,11,12]. They are
designed with attributes that can reduce most of the arising complica­
tions such as small longitudinal length and low carbon emission, useful
for all age groups; with no restrictions on helmets, registration, taxes and
licenses [10,12]. In the past few years, there has been a growing interest
in the deployment of the e-bicycles for urban motorization, aiming to
reduce traffic congestions [11]. Significant efforts have been focused on
enabling e-bicycle to confer positive benefits to individuals’ mobility,
especially in academic campuses [13,14,15,16]. Benefiting from its easy
handling, a wide penetration of e-bicycle in home-to-school commuting
could positively affect education, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa
where urban roads to school are heavily congested and rural schools are
remotely located.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: piusvictor2013@gmail.com (P. Victor Chombo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101206
Received 30 November 2020; Received in revised form 13 February 2021; Accepted 20 March 2021
Available online 9 April 2021
2213-1388/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Aliila Greyson et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206

Nomenclature NW number of schooling weeks per year (weeks/year)

Pbulb electrical power of one bulb (kW)
%tsaving, r percentage of time saving in route r (%) Ptr tractive power (kW)
Af frontal area (m2) T tractive torque (Nm)
BLDC brushless direct current motor tbasis time basis (minutes)
Cannual_bus annual bus fare (US$) thome-to-school, r home-to-school time in route r (minutes)
Cannual_saving, i annual cost saving in scenario i (US$) Vb longitudinal velocity of the e-bicycle (km/h)
Cconv cost of conversion kit (US$) Vw wind velocity (m/s)
CD drag coefficient due to air
Ce-bicy initial cost of new e-bicycle (US$) Greek symbols
Cen_annual, i annual cost of energy consumed in scenario i (US$) Θ road angle (o)
Cen_trip, i cost of energy consumed in scenario i (US$) ω angular velocity (rad/sec)
Cinitial, i total initial cost in scenario i (US$) Р density of air (kg/m3)
CLED cost of LED (US$) Π Pi
CRR frictional coefficient Subscripts
Ctrad-bicy cost of traditional bicycle (US$) Aero Aero
Cunit cost of electrical energy per unit (US$/kWh) B Bicycle
dhome-to-school, r home-to-school one-way distance in route r (km) Cons consumption
dround_trip round trip distance (km) cons_em consumption of electric motor
Etot total electrical energy consumed (kWh) cons_light consumption of lighting bulb
Etotal, i total energy consumed in scenario i (US$) D Driving
Faero aerodynamic force (N) D Drag
Fg inertial force(N) F Frontal
FRR friction force (N) G gravity
Ftr tractive force (N) I scenarios
g force of gravity (m/s2) R school route
H lighting hours during night studies (hours) round_trip round trip
LED light-emitting diode tot_cons_em total consumption of electric motor
M mass of e-bicycle system and student (kg) Tr traction
N maximum motor speed (rpm) W wind
nbulb number of bulbs
ND number of schooling days per week (days/week)

In Tanzania, equity and quality pose challenges in the educational which hamper students’ academic achievement in both urban and rural
system. For a couple of years, access to school has emerged as a gigantic areas. Students in suburban who use public transport have been facing
impeder in educational development. As per 2010, it is only two regions physical abuses and most of the time rejected from the buses [21,22,23]
(Kilimanjaro and Mji Magharibi-Pemba) that had above 50% of school making them waiting long in the bus stops. In urban areas, for example,
net attendance rate for both boys and girls in secondary schools [17]. Mugoro (2014) reported the transport-related issues from 600 students
When compared to rural schools, only 19% of students attended schools, in 6 community secondary schools of Dar es Salaam city (see in Fig. 1).
with the worst case in Lindi and Rukwa regions [17]. In recent years, the As per Fig. 1, many students study in community schools which are
government of Tanzania has taken measures to further increase access to outside of their communities they live. The long distance from home to
the school by introducing a fee-free education policy. According to the schools necessitated the need to use bus transport, which later contrib­
[18], the fee-free education policy has shown an increase in enrollment utes to transport problems. Because of long distance from their com­
at primary and secondary school levels by 4.8% and 8.8% respectively munities to schools, students need to depart home early (nearly half of
[19].
Despite the fee-free educational policy, to date, long distance to
school continued to thwart Tanzania children’s right to education [20].
For instance, in most of rural areas, there are reported incidents of
students walking for up to 5 km from Mlete Village in Songea Rural
District to Lukala secondary school [19]. Similarly, up to 24 km at Siha
District in Kilimanjaro [20]; 10 km to 25 km either by walking or cycling
in Shinyanga secondary schools [21]; 30 km at Handeni and Muheza
Districts in Tanga [20]. Consequently, students needed to wake up early
to start off walking – sometimes across the forests, hills and rivers; arrive
late and tired; punished by arriving late to school. This makes them
arriving in school while stressed out, studying with a divided attention
as they are uncertain how and when they are going to reach home after
school.

Challenges of transportation to Tanzania’s students

Fig. 1. Examples of challenges facing students in community secondary schools
Knowing that equally access to education is a global priority, in in urban areas of Tanzania, .
Tanzania, transportation has been one of the most chronic problems adopted from [23]

2
K. Aliila Greyson et al.
the students were departing between 04:30 am to 05:30 am to school) to
compensate the time lost during the commuting. Majority of those who
were departing earlier used public buses as a common mode of trans­
port. For the few students who were living in the nearby community
departed earlier and walked to schools. In terms of school locations,
most of the community schools are in locations where there is no nearby
bus routes. In that circumstances, students needed again to walk long
distance to access the school after dropping from the bus stop. Besides,
many students spent between 2 and 4 h to commute from home to
schools, mainly attributed by many bus connectivity, traffic jam, and
long delay in bus stops. In extreme cases such as commuting in rush
hours or enrolled very far from home, students may need to connect
more than one bus to access the school. Consequently, the more student
exchange public buses to access the school the more financial burden it
pose to poor families. To cut short, the long distance and time from home
to schools, early departing time, long distance from bus stop to schools
and usage of many buses frustrate the students from poor families which
demoralize their educational career.
In rural, students are facing more barriers when they try to access to
education, compared to urban students. In many communities in rural
areas students have to travel very far to get to school, and many do not
have access to a community secondary school in their ward. Moreover,
many community secondary schools are not accessible with any public
transport- located across the forests and hills, posing difficulty to access.
Besides, cost is a very important determinate factor, especially for the
poor people, to decide whether the children could access to a better
education. Consequently, walking and traditional bicycles have been
mostly used as an alternative mode of transport, making them arrive
tired and some miss to get to school regularly. The lack and poor
geographical locations of schools in rural areas make the mobility an
exhausting task to students, significant financial burdens to parents and
problematic in educational performance [23].
Contribution of this study
Despite the hurdles in student mobility and its concomitant in
educational achievement, no study has proposed an affordable and
reliable transport for students. In that context, there is a need for sup­
porting school accessibility by adopting a cheap and easy means for
student mobility such as e-bicycle. This paper addresses the existing
Fig. 2. Case 1. (a) Distances from home-to-schools (b) students waiting for the bus during rush hours [24] (c) fighting for getting a chance to travel (d) – (e) students
using (unreliable) informal trucks as their alternative commutes [25].
3
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206
issue of access to education for Tanzania’s students and the possible
alternatives of using e-bicycle to get to school. The most promising ways
of using e-bicycle for home-to-school motorization are highlighted. This
paper consolidated useful information such as initial cost, annual
running cost and commuting time from three fashioned ways of e-bi­
cycle motorization and estimates the possible annual saving that can be
realized. At last, the possibility of using e-bicycle’s battery pack energy
for lighting in night studies is explored
Study area and data
Study areas
To explore the performance and economic affordability of using e-
bicycles as a mode of transport for students, the study was carried out in
some selected urban and rural community secondary schools, termed as
case 1 and case 2, respectively. For case 1, five secondary schools in the
Dar-es-Salaam city (Kibasila, Azania, Jangwani and Makongo secondary
schools). The students’ home (residential) areas were selected to
represent the dense populated areas where most low income residents
live while the school were chosen to from the city areas with high traffic
congestion. Fig. 2a shows the routes between the students’ home and
schools, plotted from the google map. Each route illustrates the one-way
distance from home-to-school, estimated using google map tools.
Fig. 2b-d are examples of the real pictures of students taken in the Dar-
es-Salaam city. Fig. 2b shows a number of students stranded in the bus
stop during peak hours while Fig. 2c is when a public bus arrive and
students trying to get into the bus to school. After long waiting in the bus
stops or suffering to get into the bus students came with the habit of
using sandy trucks as an alternative transport to schools. Although sandy
truck transport is free but it is dangerous for the safety of students.
Fig. 2d and e are the real examples of sandy trucks taking in and drop­
ping students.
Case 2 is represented by two regions, Rukwa region located in the
Southern highlands and Mara region located in the Northern part of
Tanzania, randomly selected to examine students’ transport-related is­
sues in rural areas. In Rukwa region, Nkasi secondary school and two
villages were selected while in Mara region, Kisaka secondary school
and four villages were considered, respectively. The villages’ centers
where the dense populations are found were selected to represent
K. Aliila Greyson et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206

students’ home while the selected school are the common ones found in Table 1
the studied places. Fig. 3a and b show the routes between the students’ One-way average distance from home to school.
home and schools, plotted from the google map. Each route demon­ Case 1 Case 2
strates the one-way distance from home-to-school, estimated using
Urban area Rural area
google map tools. Fig. 3c-f show the daily commuting lifestyle of stu­
dents in rural areas. Fig. 3c and 3d are examples of students walking to From students’ home- Distance From village center-to- Distance
to-school (km) school (km)
or from schools. Distinctly, students are seen to walk along the forest
while others are crossing the river as shown in Fig. 3d. On the other G/Mboto to Kibasila 15.6 Machete village to Nkasi 20.0
Sec. school secondary school
hand, some students use traditional bicycles to get to school, consuming
Mbagala Zakhem to 14.0 Kacheche village to Nkasi 16.0
much energy on pedaling and arrive tired in school (see in Fig. 3e and f). BW Mkapa Sec. secondary school
Table 1 portrayals the one way average distance from home to school school
in case 1 and case 2. The values were summarized from Fig. 2a and Mbezi Mwisho to 19.0 Nyansurumunti village to 4.0
Fig. 3a-b. In case 1, estimation started from the centre of the residential Jangwani Sec. Kisaka secondary school
school
area to school while in case 2 started from the village center to school. Goba Center to 19.0 Kisaka village to Kisaka 2.0
The estimated distance where used in analyzing the performance of the Makongo Sec. secondary school
designed powertrain of the e-bicycle. school
Nyiboko village to Kisaka 9.0
secondary school
Power requirement of the e-bicycle Borenga village to Kisaka 9.0
secondary school
For the e-bicycle to move, it first needs to understand the compo­
nents of forces that act on it. Fig. 4 shows the components of forces, i.e.,
aerodynamic force (Faero), inertial force (Fg) and frictional force (FRR) P = Ftr × Vd (5)
acting on the e-bicycle, see eq. (1) to (3) [26,27]. Then, the tractive force
(Ftr) to overcome these opposing forces and move the e-bicycle is given P 60 × P
T= = (6)
in eq. (4). The resultant mechanical power (P) and torque (T) of the ω 2π N
motor required to move the e-bicycle’s is shown in eqs. (5) and (6),
respectively. where Af is the front area of e-bicycle (m2), CD is the drag coefficient due
to air, ρ is the density of air (kg/m3), Vd is the longitudinal velocity of the
1 e-bicycle (m/s), Vw is the wind velocity (m/s), M is the of bicycle and
Faero = Af CD ρair (Vd − Vw )2 (1)
2 passengers (kg), g is the force of gravity (m/s2), θ is the road angle, CRR is
Fg = Mgsin(θ) (2) the frictional coefficient due to rolling between tires and road, and N is
the maximum motor speed (rpm).
FRR = MgCRR cos(θ) (3) Table 2 shows the components of mass considered to be propelled.
The average student’s weight under the study is suggested to be 50 kg. A
Ftr = Faero + Fg + FRR (4) weight of 30 kg is added to account for luggage carried on the e-bicycle.
Table 3 shows the maximum values of various system parameters

Fig. 3. Case 2. Distances from the villages-to-schools in (a) Rukwa and (b) Mara region. Students (c) walking (d) crossing a river, and (d) pedaling post-school classes.

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 K. Aliila Greyson et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206

Estimating the light energy demand for night studies

The energy estimation is undertaken in both case 1 and 2. In case 1,

this study accounts that not all urban residents are electrified. Even for
the electrified residents, power outage is yet a big challenge. So, the
need of lighting energy in case 1 is also included. In case 2, a home in a
rural area is regarded as un-electrified one. This is because the majority
of rural residents are neither connected to the main grid nor the off-
grids. Realistically, among the great impeders for grid extension in
rural areas include less dense population, limited and sparse demand.
The similar factors have been leading to low electrification rates in rural
areas of other different world regions including Sub-Saharan Africa,
Middle East, South Asia, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa,
East Asia & Pacific [30]. With regards to education in rural areas, lack of
electric lights hinders students to study more at night times [31].
Currently, the major sources of light for students’ night studies
Fig. 4. Components of forces for propelling the e-bicycle. include local kerosene candles which are unclean and pose healthy risks
to users. See examples in Fig. 5a and b. As a matter of providing a clean,
cheap and safe source of light, this study computes the light energy
Table 2 demand for only one living room in both cases used by the student(s) for
Components of masses considered for motor sizing [28]. night studies. The acceptable light energy quantity of 250 lm for study
Bicycle component Mass in kg room is used to calculate wattage requirement [31]. To optimize the
Bicycle assembly 10 energy requirement and perform an efficient conversion, a 10 W, 12 V, 1
Motor and gear 6 foot T8 DC tube light [32] with an approximate of 100 lm or 10 lm/W is
Power control 1 considered as a light source.
Battery 6
Thus, two 10 W, 12 V T8 DC [33] tube lights are capable of providing
Student weight 80
Total weight 103
the required lumens for studying purposes. In both cases, six hours of
studies are employed in energy calculation. The proposed lighting sys­
tem is shown in Fig. 5c.

Table 3
Maximum values of system parameters.
Sizing the battery pack

Parameter Unit Value

The size of the battery pack is estimated to supply a D.C. power
θ ◦
3.43 required to drive the e-bicycle from school to home and back school,
3
ρ kg/m 1.29 assuming the charging point is at school. The energy consumed by the
CD – 0.8
Af m2 0.5
BLDC per kilometre (kWh/km) is obtained by its rated electrical power
g m/s2 9.81 (350 W, 450 W and 500 W) and e-bicycle velocity (25 km/h), see in (7).
Vb km/hr 20 The total energy consumed by the electric motor in a round trip from
CR – 0.014 school-to-home-to-school is given in (8). The round trip distance for
Faero N 30
each home and school can be obtained by doubling the one-way trip
M kg 103
Power W 444.63 distances from home to school listed in Table 1. For the case of lighting
energy demand, 2 LED tube lights with 0.01 kW each for lighting in 6 h
are employed. The lighting energy is computed in eq. (9). So, the total
necessary for obtaining propulsion power, taking into account the bi­ energy required per day is given as a summation of energy needed by the
cycle velocity of 25 km/h and headwind speed of 20 km/h which adds BLDC for a round-trip and LED for 6 h, as given in eq. (10).
up to approximately 30 W power to propel [27,28]. The computed The total energy obtained in eq. (10) suggests the battery size. From
traction power based on eqs. (2) to (5), and Tables 2 have been shown in the emerging battery technology available in the market, this study uses
Table 3. Li-ion battery for energy storage. Considering the round-trip distance in
each case, the battery capacity was computed in both cases. Due to the
Selection and sizing of the electric motor charge–discharge characteristics of the Li-ion battery and its safety re­
quirements, this study accounts the depth of discharge of up to 20%,
Since there are various types of the motor such as permanent magnet hence, a factor of 1.25 or 1/0.8is employed in eq. (11) to obtain the
synchronous motor, induction motor, switched reluctance and brushless usable capacity of the battery.
D.C. motor, induction motors find an essential application in electric
Ptr
vehicles following their robustness, cost-effectiveness and less mainte­ Econs\_em = (7)
Vb
nance [10]. For the case of e-bicycle, brushless direct current motors
(BLDC) are found to be most suitable due to their longer life (due to no Etotal = Econs\_em × dround (8)
cons em trip
brushes), high starting torque, high no-load speed, small energy loss and
energy consumption, less space and high volume to weight ratio, Econs light = Pbulb × nbulb × h (9)
reduced size and higher efficiency [10,9,28,29]. A BLDC motor, three-
phase type or so-called a flat hub motor is the typical type of motor Etotal, i = (Etotal\_cons\_em )y,i + Econs light (10)
that found suitable for the e-bicycle applications. Based on the obtained
traction power of 444.63 W (from Table 3) and considering a wide range Usable capacity = Etotal × 1.25 (11)
of student load; therefore, BLDC rear hub motors of 350 W, 450 W and
500 W were selected for analyzing their technical performance and where Ptr is the traction power (kW); Vb is the e-bicycle velocity (km/h);
economic viability. Econs\_em is the energy consumed by the electric motor in per one kilo

5
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K. Aliila Greyson et al.
Fig. 5. (a)-(b) Students’ night studies lighted by kerosene lamps [34,35] (c) a proposed lighting system composed of two energy-efficient LED tube lights utilizing
energy from the e-bicycle’s battery pack.
metre (kWh/km); dround trip is the round-trip distance (km);
(Etotal\_cons\_em )y,i is the energy consumed by the electric motor of power
rating y in scenario i per round-trip distance (kWh); Pbulb is the wattage
of one LED bulb (kW); nbulb is the number of LED bulb; h is the lighting
hours in the one-night study (hours); Econs light is the energy consumed by
all LED bulbs in a night study (kWh); Etotal, i is the total energy consumed
in scenario i.
Estimation of costs and savings
Based on the system components and available prices in Dar-es-
Salaam, Tanzania as per year 2020; the appropriate types of the bicy­
cle, BLDC motor, conversion kit, Li-ion battery pack, and LED bulb were
chosen. Therefore, the initial cost for each scenario was computed as
expressed in eq. (12).
⎧ Cbus\_annual is the annual bus fare (US$/year), %tsaving, r is the time saving
⎨ Ce - bicy + CLED for scenario 1
Cinitial, i = Ctrad - bicy + CLED + Cconv for scenario 2 (12)
⎩
Cconv + CLED for scenario 3
where
Cinitial is the initial cost of scenario i (US$), Ce - bicy is the cost of pur­
chasing an e-bicycle (US$),CLED is the cost of purchasing LED (US$),
Ctrad - bicy is the cost of purchasing the traditional bicycle (US$)
andCconv is the cost of purchasing the conversion kit (US$).
The cost of energy consumed per round-trip in scenario i can be
computed based on the energy consumed by the BLDC of power rating y
and LED (see eq. (12)) and unit cost of electricity as shown in eq. (13).
The unit cost of electricity considered here is 350 TZS/kWh for D1 tariff
in urban areas. Then, the annual cost of energy consumed is obtained as
per equation (14).
Cen\_trip, i = Etotal, i × Cunit
Cen\_annual, i = Cen\_trip, i × ND × NW
where
Cen\_trip, i is the cost of energy consumed in a round-trip in scenario i
(US$/round-trip), Cunit is the unit cost of electrical energy (US$/kWh),
Cen\_annual, i is the annual cost of energy consumed in scenario i (US
$/year), NDis the number of schooling days per week (days/week),
NWis the number of schooling weeks per year (weeks/year).
The annual saving in terms of cost is computed based on the differ­
ence between the annual costs of bus fare and energy cost of e-bicycle. At
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206
first, the saving in scenario i was computed using eq. (15). This saving
was intended to explore the viability of each scenario before imple­
mentation. The one-way bus fare per student is considered to be 200 TZS
(Tanzanian shilling) equivalent to 0.0862 US$ as per October 2020. The
percentage of time saved in school route r is expressed in eq. (16).
Cannual\_saving, i = Cbus\_annual − Cen\_annual, i (15)
tbasis − thome - to - school,
(16)
r
%tsaving, r =
tbasis
thome - to - school, r =
dhome - to - school, r
Vb
where
Cannual\_saving, i is the annual cost saving in scenario i (US$/year),
in route r (%),tbasis is the time basis (minutes), thome - to - school, r is the
home-to-school time in route r (minutes), and dhome - to - school, r is the
home-to-school one-way distance in route r (km).
Implementation
As per World Bank data of 2020, the gross domestic product (GDP)
per capita in Tanzania is about US$ 1122.1 [36]. However, in rural
areas, it is most likely to be slightly lower than US$ 1000 for most of the
rural residents. In that context, the major challenge for the widespread
of e-bicycles in rural areas of Tanzania could be the high initial cost.
Thus, the implementation of the e-bicycle is undertaken in three
different scenarios, see Fig. 6. The first scenario considers that the end-
user can purchase the new e-bicycle with the conversion kit already
installed by the maker. In the second scenario, the end-user can opt to
(13) purchase the traditional bicycle and conversion kit from different sup­
pliers. The third scenario assumes the end-user has the traditional bi­
(14) cycle, and purchase only the conversion kit. The cost estimates in each
scenario help to understand the cheapest way of implementing the e-
bicycle in each case.
Results and discussion
The technical performance has been performed through Ms Excel
software, and all technical data are referred from Tables 1-3. Table 4
shows the cost of equipment as available in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
The economic viability has been performed by converting TZS to US$ at
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K. Aliila Greyson et al.
Fig. 6. Three scenarios used for assessing the performance of the e-bicycle.
Table 4
The cost of equipment used.
Item Specifications
e-bicycle BLDC: 350 W, 36 V, 20–30 km/rBattery: 10 Ah, 36 V,
45 kmTire size: 26*1.95 cm
BLDC: 450 W, 36 V, 20–30 km/rBattery: 18 Ah, 36 V,
45 kmTire size: 26*1.95 cm
BLDC: 500 W, 36 V, 20–30 km/rBattery: 24 Ah, 36 V,
45 kmTire size: 26*1.95 cm
Traditional Tire size: 26*1.95 cm
bicycle
Conversion kit BLDC: 350 W, 36 V, 330 rpm, 40Nm, 20–30 km/
rCharger: 230Vac, 50 Hz, 36 V, 2ACharger
controller: 36 V, 20AGear: 16 wheel teeth, reduction
ratio 9.78:1Battery: 10 Ah, 36 V, charging time 4–6
hOthers: throttle, front light, horn, chain, key switch,
flywheel, display, screws & holders
BLDC: 450 W, 36 V, 390 rpm, 46Nm, 25–35 km/
rCharger: 230Vac, 50 Hz, 36 V, 2ACharger
controller: 36 V, 20AGear: reduction ratio
7.81:1Battery: 18 Ah, 36 V, charging time 4–8
hOthers: throttle, front light, horn, chain, key switch,
flywheel, display, screws & holders
BLDC: 500 W, 36 V, 400 rpm, 48Nm, 30–40 km/
rCharger: 230Vac, 50 Hz, 36 V, 2ACharger
controller: 36 V, 22ABattery: 24 Ah, 36 V, charging
time 4–8 hOthers: throttle, front light, horn, chain,
key switch, flywheel, display, screws & holders
LED tube light Rated power: 10 W, 12 V dc, 10 lm/W, 3000 KFrame
size: T8, 60 cm, IP55Casing: Aluminum + plastic on
top
a rate of 1US$ = 2320 TZS based on 11 October 2020.
Three scenarios were studied, including their technical and eco­
nomic impacts with a different rated power of e-bicycle’s motor hub
(350 W, 450 W and 500 W). The result regarding the comparison of
three scenarios and maximum round-trip distance of 40 km is depicted
in Fig. 7. The maximum round-trip distance of 40 km was selected to
represent the worst-case condition in the study. Based on Table 5, sce­
nario 1, describing the purchasing of the electrified e-bicycle from the
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206
Price (US
$)
441.83
568.00
592.00
100.00
85.78
Fig. 7. Comparison of the three scenarios. Note: each colour indicates a sin­
93.14 gle scenario.
same maker, revealed the highest initial cost compared to others (about
US$ 450 to US$ 600). Moreover, the initial cost in scenario 1 seemed to
increase with the rated power of the e-bicycle’s motor hub. Scenario 2,
175.92 describing the purchasing of the traditional bicycle and conversion kit
from different suppliers, depicted the cheaper initial cost compared to
scenario 1. The substantial reduction in the initial cost is due to the
lower cost of traditional bicycles. Luckily, there is no major limitation on
3.87 utilizing the traditional bicycle and conversion kit from different
makers, if the load and rated power of the motor hub are matched. In
scenario 2 and rated power of 350 W and 450 W, the initial cost is
approximately US$ 200. As computed in this study, the rated power
needed for the hub motor is about 450 W. Thus, scenario 2 sounds
technically practical and economically affordable for students with no
bicycle. For students who own traditional bicycles, scenario 3 is the
cheapest option, as they need to purchase a conversion kit only – ranging
between US$ 85.78 to US$ 175.92 (depending on the rated power of the
motor) and a fixed cost of US4 7.74 for the 2 LED tube lights.
In terms of running cost, this study considered a maximum round-
trip distance of 40 km and 6 h of night studies. The annual running
7
K. Aliila Greyson et al.
Table 5
The cost in each scenario.
Item Scenario 1a
Rated power 350 W 450 W 500 W
BLDC 441.83 568.00 592.00
Conversion kit – – – 85.78
LED (2 tube lights) 7.74 7.74 7.74
Total price (US$) 449.57 575.74 599.74
a b
Scenario 1 combines the price of BLDC and the conversion kit Scenario 2 considers only the purchasing cost of conversion kit and 2 LED tube lights
cost amounts to US$ 25.57 to US$ 36.09 for the 350 W to 500 W,
respectively. Despite the longest school distance and energy consump­
tion by 2 LED tube lights, yet there exists an annual saving in all cases
and scenarios. The high cost of bus fare in a round-trip compared to the
cost of electricity may be the primary attribute. The annual saving
ranges between US$ 18.16 to US$ 8.74 from the 350 W to 500 W.
Fig. 8 compares the running costs and savings in cases 1 and 2. The
common finding is that the running cost increases with round-trip dis­
tance. On the other side, the rated power of the BLDC contributes
significantly on energy consumption; hence, increases the running cost.
For instance, in case 1, from a 350 W to 450 W, there is an increase of
about 22% in the running cost. Likewise, from a 450 W to 500 W, the
running cost increases by almost 9%. Thus, for reducing the running
cost, an optimum rated power BLDC is suggested for the short-round-trip
distances. Similarly, to reduce the running cost and acquire better
saving, an optimum power BLDC is also recommended.
From case 1, when comparing the annual running cost of e-bicycle
and existing bus, it is revealed that lower e-bicycle power and shorter
routes are the major driving factors for the significant saving.
Another critical parameter is the time from home to school. It is
reported in [23] that 5%, 15% and 24% of students in urban schools
wake up around 04:00 am, 04:30 am and 05:00 am, respectively.
Moreover, 34% of them spend between 2 and 4 h to arrive in school,
mainly attributed by long waiting at the bus stop and lousy traffic
congestion. This time spent in traffic jam has good agreement with that
reported in [37,38] that, the Dar-es-Salaam commuters spend 2 to 3 h
Fig. 8. Comparison of the running costs and saving in case 1 and 2. Note: each
color indicates the round-trip distance from home-to-school (km).
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206
Scenario 2 Scenario 3
350 W 450 W 500 W 350 W 450 W 500 W
100.00 100.00 100.00 – – –
93.14 175.92 85.78 93.14 175.92
7.74 7.74 7.74 7.74 7.74 7.74
193.52 200.88 283.66 93.52 100.88 183.66
due to traffic congestion. In this study, based on the urban schools, the
modelled e-bicycle is expected to provide a commuting time of about 35
min (0.58 h) to 45 min (0.75 h) to school saving almost 75% to 72%,
respectively, of the commuting time in a basis of 4 h. Due to the large
distances to school in rural areas, commuting with e-bicycle in the worst
case of 20 km, it is expected to spend almost 50 min (0.83 h) to school,
and serves about 80% of the walking time, in a 4 h basis. The comparison
of time spent and maximum time saved in urban and rural areas is shown
in Fig. 9.
Based on the total energy consumption computed in equation (10),
the usable capacity of the battery pack for the 350 W, 450 W and 500 W
ranges between 22.639 mAh and 30.556 mAh in urban, and up to
31.944 mAh in rural areas. Therefore, a proper consultation is crucial
when one need to choose the size of e-bicycle.
To account the situation where two students from the similar home
address are carried by the same e-bicycle, this paper computed the
tractive power requirement and found that a 750 W BLDC is suitable for
that application. Based on scenario 1 shown in Fig. 10a, adopting an e-
bicycle of 750 W for two students saved around 112.75 US$, 364.69 US$
and 413.09 US$ compared to the initial cost of two individual 350 W,
450 W and 500 W e-bicycles, respectively. Contrary, in scenarios 2, a
750 W e-bicycle could impose an additional costs of 73.83 US$ and
59.11 US$ in 350 W, 450 W, respectively, while saving 106.45 US$ in
500 W. Similarly, scenarios 3, a 750 W e-bicycle could add around
173.83 US$ and 159.11 US$ in 350 W, 450 W, while saving 6.45 US$ in
500 W.
In terms of running cost, it is clearly indicated that 750 W has slightly
higher running cost in both case 1 and 2 when compared with two 350 W
e-bicycles (see the blue and red curves in Fig. 10b). More specifically, the
annual running costs of 750 W exceeded that of two 350 W e-bicycles by
0.314 US$ and 3.138 US$ per year. This surplus is equivalent to 3.45%
to 6.45% to the annual running cost of two 350 W e-bicycle, and is
mainly attributed to the high power of 750 W BLDC. In other cases, the
annual cost of energy of 750 W e-bicycle was seen to be lower compared
to two 450 W (0.941 US$/year to 9.414 US$ per year) and 500 W (7.845
US$/year to 15.690 US$ per year) e-bicycles. Since BLDC power seemed
to be the main parameter in the energy consumption, this study
concluded the following in terms of sharing e-bicycle. The e-bicycle
Fig. 9. Comparison of time spend and maximum time saved in urban and rural
areas after adopting e-bicycles.
8
K. Aliila Greyson et al.
Fig. 10. Comparison of (a) initial costs and (b) annual running costs between a
750 W e-bicycle and two e-bicycles representing two students from the similar
address. The comparison of initial cost was based on scenario 1, 2 and 3 while
annual running costs were performed at case 1 and case 2.
becomes feasible for sharing when its power rating is lower than the sum
of two individual e-bicycles. This leads to the significant reduction in the
initial and running costs.
Conclusion
This paper addresses the existing issue of access to education for
Tanzania’s students and the possible alternatives of using e-bicycle to
get to school. The most promising ways of using e-bicycle for home-to-
school motorization are highlighted. This paper consolidated useful in­
formation such as initial cost, annual running cost and commuting time
from three fashioned ways of e-bicycle motorization and estimates the
possible annual saving that can be realized. At last, the possibility of
using e-bicycle’s battery pack energy for lighting in night studies is
explored.
Findings revealed that the initial costs depend on the rated power of
the e-bicycle motor hub. The higher the rated power, the higher is the
initial cost. Scenario 3 (purchasing the conversion kit only to electrify
the existing traditional bicycle) was found to be the cheapest option for
students who own traditional bicycles, whereas scenario 2 for students
who do not own traditional bicycles.
The annual running cost at a maximum round-trip distance of 40 km
and 6 h of night studies amounted to US$ 25.57 to US$ 36.09; whereas
the annual saving ranged between US$ 18.16 to US$ 8.74 from the 350
W to 500 W, respectively. It is expected that the e-bicycle could provide
a commuting time of about 35 to 45 min in urban schools saving almost
75% to 72%, of the commuting time, respectively; and 50 min to school
saving about 80% of the walking time, in a basis of 4 h.
9
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 45 (2021) 101206
For the case of two students from the same address sharing the same
e-bicycle, a 750 W was found promising for commuting. However,
sharing one e-bicycle was found to be feasible when the power rating of
the e-bicycle to be shared is less than that of the two single e-bicycles, in
order to provide a lower initial cost and reasonable annual energy cost.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Dar-es-Salaam
Institute of Technology for their support.
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