Grapevine

Mobius Motors collapse casts doubt on the future of local auto industry

The Mobius II is a Kenyan-built car by Mobius, a company located along Mombasa Road at Sameer Business Park. [Courtesy]

When Joel Jackson embarked on building Mobius, he believed he had figured out what an ideal vehicle for Kenya and Africa would look like.

He envisioned a no-frills SUV that did not have such nonessentials as air conditioning and automatic windows keeping the production costs low, high ground clearance to enable the vehicle to handle potholes and “ruggedised” suspension for the generally rough terrain.

All this for about Sh1 million, at least for the vehicle’s first addition.

He was eyeing a space dominated by imported passenger cars that do not factor local usage in their design stage while high import duties significantly add to the production costs “sometimes doubling the price of a car”.