Mobius Motors: Untold story of iconic Kenyan car brand taking over the world

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Mobius Motors Kenya Ltd is a Kenyan automobile OEM startup founded in 2010 to manufacture vehicles for the African market.

Mobius designs, manufactures and sells vehicles built specifically for the African mass market.

Mobius - Car details

The firm’s cars’ design was conceived by reimagining the vehicle, around the needs of the African consumer – common road terrain, typical vehicle loading and average income levels were important factors in the development of the vehicle.

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Incorporated in the United Kingdom in 2010 and registered in Kenya in 2011, Mobius Motors is the only automobile company in Kenya and one of the two automobile companies in the East African region.

The name comes from the Mobius strip, a special mathematical surface with a single surface and single boundary, first described by German mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius in 1858.

Mobius - Car details

The company manufactures SUVs (sport utility vehicles) that can handle the rough roads and rugged terrain found in many parts of the regional infrastructure.

Mobius I was Mobius Motors’ first prototype, a practical, no-frills vehicle composed of a tubular steel frame and off-the-shelf parts. In the founder’s words, it looked like a ‘dune buggy’.

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Cargo, available in black only, is the entry model and focuses on the functionality of transportation with a starting price of Sh1.3 million.

After raising external financing, Mobius Motors started work on the next prototype for the first production model.

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The Mobius II (first generation) featured more detailed engineering and design from a team of professional engineers.

Mobius

The company received 300 pre-orders for Mobius II to be produced at the newly built Sh500 million Nairobi factory.

Founded in 2009 by British entrepreneur — now Nairobi-based — Joel Jackson, the soon- to- be-made Kenyan all-terrain vehicle with an 1800cc engine comes in three models with the most expensive being Mobius Adventure, available in black, dark blue and light blue for Sh1.58 million inclusive of tax.

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The Adventure model, available in black and dark blue with three additional rear seats is available at Sh1.45 million.

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Cargo, available in black only, is the entry model and focuses on the functionality of transportation with a starting price of Sh1.3 million. 

Darshan Chandaria, the founder and managing partner of Chandaria Capital, which bought a major stake at the carmaker, said the orders will keep the firm busy for the next 14 months, signalling growing demand for locally manufactured vehicles.

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  The company is the only official passenger vehicle manufacturer in Kenya, and the only operational OEM in the East African region.

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Mobius received a Sh500 million loan from the US government’s development finance institution, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) to set up a new factory that will see them build a scratch-to-finish assembly plant.

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