A vehicle built in Africa, for Africa | Joel Jackson

67,331 views ・ 2018-02-01

TED


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Imagine if your daily commute involved tens of kilometers
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on these kinds of roads,
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driving this kind of vehicle,
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without any nearby service stations or breakdown assistance.
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For millions of drivers in many parts of Africa, this is the norm.
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Since over 90 percent of passenger cars are imported,
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often used,
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they're just not designed for local usage.
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High import duties often compound the problem,
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sometimes doubling the price of a car.
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So most vehicles are either too expensive or too unreliable
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for the average consumer.
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Well-designed vehicles are only part of the transport challenge, though.
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For every 100 adults in Africa,
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less than five people actually own a vehicle.
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Public transport is available,
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and in countries like Kenya, it's often run by local entrepreneurs
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using minivans like this.
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But in most rural and peri-urban areas,
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it's fragmented and unreliable.
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In more remote areas without transport,
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people have to walk, typically tens of kilometers,
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to get to school or collect clean drinking water
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or buy supplies from nearby markets.
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Bad roads, disparate communities, low average income levels
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and inadequate vehicles
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all impair the transport system
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and ultimately constrain economic output.
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Despite this constraint, the Pan-African economy is booming.
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Combined GDP is already over two trillion dollars.
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This is a massive commercial and social opportunity,
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not a helpless continent.
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So why isn't there already something better?
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Around the world, automotive is quarter the manufacturing sector.
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But in Africa, it's generally been overlooked by carmakers,
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who are focused on larger, established markets
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and emerging economies like India and China.
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This lack of industrialization,
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which itself creates a vicious-cycle barrier to the emergence of industry,
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has caused the dependence on imports.
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There is a supply-demand disconnect,
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with the vast majority of automotive spending on the continent today,
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essentially funding an international network of car exporters
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instead of fueling the growth of local industry.
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It's entirely possible to solve this disconnect, though,
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starting with products that people actually want.
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And this is what motivated me to start Mobius,
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to build a vehicle in Africa, for Africa.
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To us, this meant reimagining the car around the needs of the consumer,
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simplifying nonessential features like interior fixtures
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and investing in performance-critical systems like suspension
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to create durable and affordable vehicles
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built for purpose.
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And built for purpose is exactly where we started
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with our first-generation model, Mobius II,
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which was designed as a really rugged, low-cost SUV,
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able to handle heavy loads and rough terrain reliably.
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This launched in 2015,
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and we've now developed the next-generation version
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based on customer feedback.
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For high stress and heavy loading,
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we engineered a sturdy steel space frame.
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To handle acute vibration from rough roads,
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we ruggedized the suspension.
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For potholes and uneven terrain, high ground clearance was a no-brainer.
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And to make this something customers could actually be proud to drive in,
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we designed an aspirational body aesthetic.
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Underpinning all of this, we simplified or eliminated components
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like parking sensors and automatic windows
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wherever we could,
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to keep costs low
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and sell this at half the price of a five-year-old SUV in Kenya today.
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The new --
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(Applause)
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The new Mobius II launches in 2018.
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And while durable, affordable vehicles like this are vital,
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a broader solution to immobility needs to go further.
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Over the last decade,
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a transport-centric, shared economy has connected people across Africa
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with minivans, auto rickshaws and sedans.
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It's just not operated very effectively or efficiently.
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Enabling better access to transport is all about strengthening
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this public transit network,
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empowering local entrepreneurs who already offer similar services
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in their communities
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to operate these services more profitably and more widely.
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With this aim, we're taking human-centered design a step further
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and developing a transport platform model,
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which enables owners to plug in different modules,
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like a goods cage or ambulance unit,
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and run other services like goods delivery or medical transport,
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as well as public transport.
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Transportation services like this are the fundamental driver
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of logistics, trade, social services,
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access to education, health care and employment.
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The transportation grid to physical economies
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is akin to the internet to virtual economies.
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And the impact of increased mobility is only part of the potential here.
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Since the late 1700s, the Industrial Revolution has catapulted
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the development of economies around the world
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into thriving societies.
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Today, manufacturing is still the engine of economic growth and stability,
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even as new technologies have inevitably transformed the way we live.
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Making stuff is important,
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especially for nation-states wanting to boost employment,
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increase skills and reduce import dependence.
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But while few countries can skip this industrialized stage,
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many have negligible manufacturing output.
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There are various reasons for this,
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but one reason is universal: hardware is hard.
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(Laughter)
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So what are the challenges to industry, and how are we approaching them?
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The first issue many people think of is a lack of skilled labor.
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In areas where access to good primary and secondary education are limited
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and employment opportunities are scarce,
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a small skill base is inevitable.
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But that doesn't mean it's immutable.
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There's an abundance of smart, hardworking and ambitious people in Africa,
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obviously.
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What's really lacking are good jobs
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that offer a path not just to employment but also professional growth.
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The first person we employed at Mobius over six years ago
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was a mechanic named Kazungu.
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Kazungu had gone to school up to the age of 18
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and worked as an odd-job mechanic.
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Joining the company at the time was a near-vertical learning curve.
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But he rose to the challenge,
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and with more technical guidance from an expanding engineering team,
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he's grown over the years
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to lead a group of mechanics in R&D prototyping.
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A thirst for learning and the work ethic to step up to a challenge
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are values we now recruit on.
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Pairing innate values like this with on-the-job training and systems
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has strengthened our skill base.
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This works really well on the production line,
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where work can be systematized around clear procedural instructions
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and then reinforced through training.
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In our experience, it is possible to build a skilled workforce,
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and we plan to hire hundreds more people using this approach.
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A second challenge is a lack of suppliers.
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In countries like Kenya, there are only a handful of automotive suppliers
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manufacturing parts like electrical harnesses, seats and glass.
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It's a burgeoning group,
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and without much demand from industry,
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most of these suppliers have no impetus to grow.
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We've worked hard with a few of them to develop the capacity
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to consistently manufacture components at the quality levels we need,
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like this supplier in Nairobi,
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who are helping to reduce the production cost of metal brackets
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and improve their ability to build conformant parts
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to our engineering drawings.
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Supply and development is standard practice in automotive globally,
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but it needs to be applied from the ground up
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with a vast majority of local suppliers
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to properly bolster the ecosystem.
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And as production volumes rise, these suppliers can employ more staff,
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invest in better equipment
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and continue to develop new manufacturing techniques
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to further increase output.
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Building up skills and suppliers are not the only hurdles
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to local industrialization,
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but they're good examples of how we think about the challenge.
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You see, we're not just reimagining the car,
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we're reimagining our entire value chain.
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None of this has been easy,
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and we're only just getting started.
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But once African industry starts to scale,
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the potential is huge.
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Better products,
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costing less,
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built locally,
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together creating millions of jobs.
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Frugal innovation offers a path to economic acceleration
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across many industries,
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and the future of this continent depends on it.
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The Africa 2.0 I believe in can apply locally relevant design
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and a commitment to solving its industrial challenges
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to create a more connected, more prosperous future,
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not just for the privileged few,
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but for everyone.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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