How to Charge an Electric Car at Home in Kenya

The short answer

You can charge an electric car at home in Kenya from a normal socket, but it is slow. A 7 kW wallbox on its own circuit, such as the Pulse charger, covers a typical 60 km day in about 90 minutes, for an illustrative KES 140 a day in electricity. Pulse is from KES 79,000, or from KES 3,300/month with Lipa Pole Pole on M-Pesa.

Normal socket, portable charger or wallbox

• Normal 13 A socket: the cable that comes with many cars draws about 2.3 kW and adds roughly 10 to 15 km of range an hour. Use a socket in good condition on a circuit with nothing else heavy on it.
• Portable charger (3.3 kW): the Spark charger, from KES 25,000, covers a typical day in about 180 minutes.
• Wallbox (7 kW): the Pulse charger covers a typical day in about 90 minutes and is the usual choice for a home.

What your electricity supply needs

A 7 kW wallbox draws about 32 A on a single-phase 240 V supply. An electrician should check four things before installation: that the incoming supply and main breaker have spare capacity, that the earthing is sound, that the charger has its own circuit and breaker, and that the circuit has the residual current protection EV charging needs (IEC 60364-7-722). Precifarm's site survey covers all four, and flags when Kenya Power needs to upgrade the supply.

What it costs to run

An illustrative figure is about KES 140 for a typical 60 km day, against roughly KES 1,000 of diesel. Kenya Power's e-mobility tariff is KES 16 per kWh, or KES 8 per kWh off-peak, before levies and VAT; see the Kenya Power EV tariff guide.

Charging from solar

A typical day of driving uses about 10 kWh. In Nairobi, each kilowatt of solar panels produces very roughly 4 to 5 kWh a day (a planning assumption that varies with roof, season and shading), so about 2.5 kW of panels covers one day of driving on average. The sun shines while most cars are away, so a battery helps: Pod energy storage pairs a home charger with 5 or 10 kWh of storage, from KES 295,000, with Lipa Pole Pole available.

The installation steps

1. Request a home survey at precifarm.com/charging/home.
2. An engineer checks your supply, earthing, cable route and parking position.
3. You receive a fixed quote, with Lipa Pole Pole if you want to spread the cost on M-Pesa.
4. Precifarm installs, tests and commissions the charger, and shows you how to use it.