Exploring the role of electric vehicles in Africa's energy transition: A Nigerian case study

We employed a bottom-up modeling framework to examine a set of scenarios to generate insights on the techno-economic and environmental implications of increasing levels of electric vehicle (EV) penetration using Nigeria as a case study. Results indicate that, despite Nigeria having a natural gas-dominated electricity system, the deployment of EVs can support the decarbonization of the transportation and power sectors but at a relatively high cost. The cost of EVs would need to drop by ∼40% to become cost-competitive. However, if variable renewable energy sources deliver the EVs power requirement with a bidirectional vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging strategy, then the cost of EVs would need to decline by only ∼30%. Not all EVs need to participate in a V2G charging strategy in order to realize the full benefits of the strategy. Expanding renewables capacity leads to additional reduction in CO₂ emission and decarbonization cost but at different magnitudes based on the charging strategy.