Kigali, Rwanda & London, UK – 1st August 2025 — Bboxx, the next‑generation utility transforming lives through technology and finance, today announced the launch of UniBatt, a Faraday Institution‑backed concept‑to‑demonstrator project that will prove new ways to diagnose, control and extend the life of swappable lithium‑ion batteries for electric motorcycles in Rwanda and Kenya.
Led by Professor David Howey of the University of Oxford and co‑developed with Bboxx’s e‑mobility division, UniBatt will:
The project is one of only five selected worldwide by the Faraday Institution to demonstrate battery systems tailored to emerging‑economy use cases, accelerating commercial readiness while catalysing clean‑transport adoption.
- Embed Oxford’s state‑of‑health algorithms into Bboxx Pulse®—our platform already monitoring 500,000+ energy devices—to predict battery life, schedule maintenance and inform residual‑value pricing at scale.
- Develop adaptive battery‑management strategies that mitigate the harsh heat and duty‑cycles found in Sub‑Saharan Africa, targeting a step‑change in lithium‑iron‑phosphate (LFP) lifetime.
- Prototype a modular, universally compatible battery pack that can be swapped across multiple e‑motorcycle brands and managed through Pulse®, lowering operator costs and boosting asset utilisation.
Chris Baker‑Brian, Co‑Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Bboxx, said:
Bboxx has worked shoulder‑to‑shoulder with Oxford and Professor David Howey for more than a decade—first on solar home systems and now on electrifying transport. UniBatt is the natural next step: combining our Pulse® data backbone with Oxford’s world‑class battery science to deliver tougher, smarter packs that keep riders on the road and investors confident in the economics. Together, we’re setting a new standard for battery‑as‑a‑service across Africa.
Professor Howey added: “We’ve collaborated with Bboxx for over a decade and are delighted to now be scaling up some of our research so that it can be applied as widely as possible to predict battery health in this important application area”.
About Bboxx
Bboxx is a super‑platform providing access to essential products and services—energy, e‑mobility, clean cooking and more—for underserved customers across Africa. By combining smart devices, data and inclusive financing, Bboxx has positively impacted the lives of over 3.6 million people.
About the Faraday Institution
The Faraday Institution is the UK’s flagship battery research organisation, driving early‑stage scientific breakthroughs towards commercialisation to enable a clean, secure and resilient energy future.
