A Nairobi electric boda built around a swap network: ride in, exchange a flat pack for a charged one in under a couple of minutes, never own a battery. The range claims decoded, the Battery-as-a-Service math, and what is still being itemized. Sources on everything.
Less a motorcycle than a swap network on two wheels. The Magnus 3000 (MK3) is a city moto-taxi where Mazi keeps the battery and you pay for energy as a service. Expect ~70 km on one pack, ~140 km on two, a ~50 mph (80 km/h) top speed, swaps in under a couple of minutes, and a price tag set in Kenyan shillings, not dollars. The bike is the easy part; the network is the product.
Mazi sells in Kenya to commercial boda riders, with the bike reported around KES 160,000 at launch and energy paid per swap under a Battery-as-a-Service plan rather than as a battery you buy. A full 5-year, dollar-denominated cost-to-own breakdown for this model is still being itemized; we will not convert currencies, model swap-plan pricing, or invent line items we cannot source. What is verifiable is below, and the per-kilometre energy math is in §9.
Every module behind the headlines: who it is for, claims vs. physics, the swap model, what it costs, and the standard scorecard. All sourced, with gaps marked honestly.
Mazi Mobility is a Nairobi mobility-as-a-service startup, and the Magnus 3000 (MK3) is its electric boda boda built to feed a battery-swap network. The bike has a 3,000 W motor, a ~50 mph (80 km/h) top speed, and a single or dual battery good for a claimed ~70 km or ~140 km. Mazi keeps the packs and rents energy as a service, claiming swaps in under a couple of minutes and roughly 50% lower transport cost than petrol. The bike matters less than the network around it. Here is what holds up and what is still being verified.
Start here, the right answer depends entirely on who is asking and where they ride.
This is a commercial machine sold around a network. The right buyer is defined less by riding style than by location.
The sweet spot. Lower running costs, no charging wait, and a dual-pack range that covers a serious shift. If Mazi's swap stations sit on your routes, the math works in your favour.
A ~200 kg-plus load capacity and a reverse gear suit urban hauling. The model rewards riders who stay inside the swap-station footprint and keep the wheels turning.
The whole design assumes you swap, not charge at home. Away from the network the proposition weakens, because you do not own the battery you would need to charge.
No swap stations means no charged packs. The Battery-as-a-Service model falls apart where the network does not reach. Coverage is everything here.
The struck-through line is the headline; the big number is what is verifiable today. Where a figure is unconfirmed we say so rather than guess.
What is genuinely clever about the model, and which "innovations" are really table-stakes. The part the brand's own page never frames honestly.
The story here is the system, not the spec sheet. Each badge tells you whether it is a real edge, normal for the segment, or marketing gloss.
Mazi keeps the packs and runs the swap network, so you buy mobility and energy as a service instead of a battery you have to babysit and eventually replace. For a commercial rider this removes the single most expensive, most failure-prone part from your balance sheet.
★ Genuine edgeRide in, exchange a flat pack for a charged one in under a couple of minutes, find the nearest station in the app. For a taxi, downtime is lost income, so swap speed beats any "fast charge" badge.
✓ SolidOne pack for shorter routes, two for a near-full working day. A practical way to match energy to the shift, claimed at ~70 km and ~140 km respectively.
✓ SolidThe MK3 is assembled locally (reported at Eastlands College of Technology), which keeps the operation close to riders and matters for parts and service when a commercial bike inevitably needs them.
✓ SolidFind and navigate to the nearest swap point from a phone. Genuinely useful for a working rider, but app-located infrastructure is becoming standard across African swap operators.
≈ Now standardMarketing claims vs. the physics. With a swap bike the battery split is rarely published, so we run the math we can and flag what we cannot.
A wattage on a spec line tells you little until you know whether it is the figure the motor sustains or a brief peak. Mazi reports a 3,000 W rating without splitting the two.
Convert the headline to the unit a rider feels:
Range starts with energy in the pack, then divides by how much you spend per kilometre. Mazi publishes the range but not the pack's voltage and amp-hours, so here is what the math can and cannot say.
Step 1, the energy. The honest way to compare batteries is voltage times amp-hours. Mazi has not published the V and Ah of the MK3 pack in a form we can verify, so we cannot show the exact Wh.
Step 2, what the claim implies. We can still work backwards from the claimed range and a typical small-moto city consumption to sanity-check the number. A light electric boda at city speeds commonly uses on the order of 20 to 30 Wh per kilometre.
The usual charge-time formula (battery Wh divided by charger watts) does not describe this bike's real refuel, because the rider never charges. They swap.
Priced for the Kenyan commercial market in shillings. We show what is sourced and flag the rest as not yet itemized.
A full 5-year, dollar cost-to-own for this model is still being itemized, because swap-plan pricing, currency, and the local resale market are not things we will model from guesses. Here is what is sourced.
| Line item | Reported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bike price (launch) | ~KES 160,000 | Reported figure at launch; confirm current price with Mazi |
| Battery | leased, not bought | Mazi retains the packs under Battery-as-a-Service |
| Energy | per swap | Paid per swap; exact tariff not published here |
| Claimed transport saving | ~50% | Company figure vs. petrol, not an independent audit |
| Full 5-year US-style cost-to-own | being itemized | We never guess swap-plan or currency figures |
Why electric wins on energy in Kenya. Independent of Mazi's own claim, the local arithmetic strongly favours electric for a boda. Kenya petrol runs near KES 178 per litre while grid electricity is roughly KES 25 per kWh, and studies put electric boda energy at about 1 to 2 KES per kilometre versus roughly 6 to 8 KES per kilometre on petrol.
What the model depends on, who supports it, and what we genuinely do not yet know.
Mazi is a young operator and there is not yet a large, independent owner-reliability record to summarise. We will not invent owner quotes or themes. Here is what can be said responsibly.
For a swap-network bike, "parts" is really two questions: ordinary bike spares, and swap-station density. The second one matters more.
Local Nairobi assembly should help with ordinary consumables and service. The decisive factor is the swap-station network: how many stations Mazi runs, how close they sit to your routes, and how reliably each holds charged packs. We do not have a verified current station count to publish, so treat coverage as something to confirm on the ground before committing.
| What you depend on | Status | Confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Swap-station coverage on your routes | verify locally | the decisive factor |
| Ordinary consumables (tyres, brakes) | aided by local assembly | via Mazi / local |
| Battery (leased, not owned) | network handles it | swapped, not bought |
| Current station count | not published here | ask Mazi |
One scorecard, identical axes on every bike.
Every e-moto on the site is scored on these same eight axes, by the same rules, so a 7 here means the same thing as a 7 anywhere. Thin public data pulls some scores toward the middle on purpose.
Our standing methodology, run identically on every e-moto, including bikes where the maker has not published every input.
The only honest way to compare two batteries. When V and Ah are not published, as here, we say so rather than guess.
You never use 0 to 100%. The BMS holds a reserve and voltage tapers at the bottom. We assume ~88%.
Consumption is the lever. A light city boda commonly uses ~20 to 30 Wh/km. Drag rises with speed².
Always ask which number a spec quotes. Mazi's 3,000 W is not split into continuous and peak, so we flag it.
For a swap bike this is academic: the rider exchanges packs rather than charging, so swap time is the real metric.
| Cost assumption | We used | Change it if… |
|---|---|---|
| Energy basis | Local KES per swap, not US kWh | Mazi's plan pricing differs |
| Electricity rate | ~KES 25 / kWh (Kenya grid) | Tariff tiers and levies vary |
| Petrol benchmark | ~KES 178 / litre (2026) | EPRA reviews move it |
| Battery | Leased, not owned | BaaS plan terms apply |
| Resale | Not modelled (commercial fleet) | Local market differs from US |
We cite everything and date it, because specs, prices and tariffs change. Manufacturer figures are labeled as claims; real-world numbers are our estimates from the methodology above. Where a value is unknown we leave it blank rather than guess. Spot an error? Our corrections policy means we fix it in public.
Sources retrieved May to June 2026. Manufacturer and press figures state claimed specs; treat them as marketing figures, not independent tests. Battery voltage and amp-hours, weight, and continuous-versus-peak power are not published in a verifiable form and are left blank. We re-check prices and tariffs periodically because they move quickly.