Stima is not really a motorcycle. It is the energy and software backbone for Kenyan electric bodas, riding on One Electric hardware, with a network of city swap stations that exchange a flat pack in under a minute. The specs decoded, the sub-1-minute swap, and who it is for. Sources on everything.
Judge Stima on the network, not the badge. The bike is a One Electric machine; Stima provides the swap stations and the system that ties it together. Expect a ~90 km (56 mi) claimed range and a ~95 km/h (59 mph) top speed from the hardware, a sub-1-minute swap (~KES 280) instead of charging, and a claimed ~40% cut in daily running costs. For a commercial rider, the swap speed is the product.
Stima sells access to a swap network, not a battery you own. Riders pay per swap (reported around KES 280), and Stima claims at least a 40% cut in daily operating costs versus petrol. A full 5-year, dollar-denominated cost-to-own for this model is still being itemized: we will not convert currencies, model swap-plan pricing, or invent a resale figure for a commercial fleet. The verifiable figures and the per-kilometre energy math are in §9.
Every module behind the headlines: who it is for, the hardware vs. the service, claims vs. physics, what it costs, and the standard scorecard. All sourced, with gaps marked honestly.
Stima is a Nairobi-based, French-Kenyan venture (founded 2020) whose core product is software and swap infrastructure, not a bike of its own design. Stima riders use motorcycles supplied through partners, notably India's One Electric, while Stima runs the swap stations and the system behind them. The hardware quotes ~90 km (56 mi) of range and ~95 km/h (59 mph); the experience Stima sells is the sub-1-minute swap and a claimed ~40% cut in daily running costs. Judge it on coverage and savings, not badge engineering.
Start here, the right answer depends entirely on who is asking and where they ride.
This is a commercial service sold around a network. The right user is defined by location and use, not riding style.
The core target. Lower daily costs and minimal downtime if Stima's swap stations cover your routes. For a working boda, a sub-minute swap that keeps you earning is the whole pitch.
Where swap beats charge. If your earnings depend on staying on the road, exchanging a flat pack in under a minute is worth more than any single range number.
This is not a bike you take home to charge in a garage. The swap network is the point; without it the proposition does not hold. Check coverage before assuming a home-charge workflow.
No stations means no charged packs. Away from Stima's network the model does not work, the same constraint every swap operator shares.
The struck-through line is the headline; the big number is what is verifiable today. The quoted hardware specs are One Electric's, not independent tests.
What is genuinely clever, and which "innovations" are table-stakes. With Stima, almost all the cleverness is in the network, not the bike.
Stima is the service layer. Each badge tells you whether it is a real edge, normal for the segment, or borrowed from a partner.
Stima's stated edge is speed: riders can exchange a depleted pack anywhere in the city in under a minute, sidestepping the charging downtime that kills a taxi's earning hours. For commercial use, this is the differentiator.
★ Genuine edgeStima built a platform to help e-mobility companies run battery-swapping and Battery-as-a-Service businesses across Africa. The bike is the visible part; the system that schedules, meters, and manages packs is the real product.
★ Genuine edgeRather than designing a bike, Stima deploys proven One Electric motorcycles tailored for intensive African use. Sensible focus, but it means the spec sheet is borrowed, not Stima's own engineering.
✓ SolidA broader alliance links Stima, One Electric, and Mobius Motors to push local electric motorcycle assembly in Kenya, which helps cost, parts, and service over time.
✓ SolidA growing network of stations across Kenyan cities. Useful, but a station footprint is now the baseline ask for any serious African swap operator, not a unique advantage.
≈ Now standardMarketing claims vs. the physics. The hardware's battery split is not published, so we run the math we can and flag what we cannot.
Stima and One Electric quote a top speed near ~95 km/h, but a continuous and peak motor wattage for this exact configuration is not published in a form we can verify.
Without a motor wattage we cannot honestly run the horsepower formula for this bike. The formula itself is simple, and we will use it the moment a sourced figure exists:
Range starts with energy in the pack, then divides by consumption per kilometre. The hardware quotes the range but not a verifiable V and Ah, 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. One Electric does not disclose the pack's V and Ah for this configuration in a form we can cite, so we cannot show the exact Wh.
Step 2, what the claim implies. We can sanity-check the ~90 km claim against a typical city-boda consumption of roughly 20 to 30 Wh per kilometre.
The standard charge-time formula does not describe this bike's real refuel, because the rider never charges. They swap, in under a minute.
Priced for the Kenyan commercial market as a per-swap fee. We show what is sourced and flag the rest as not yet itemized.
A full 5-year, dollar cost-to-own is still being itemized, because swap-fee schedules, currency, and the local resale market are not things we will model from guesses. Here is what is sourced.
| Line item | Reported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | ~KES 280 / swap | Per-swap fee; confirm current pricing with Stima |
| Battery | leased, not bought | Stima retains and manages the packs |
| Hardware | One Electric bike | Purchase / financing terms not itemized here |
| Claimed daily opex saving | at least ~40% | Company figure vs. petrol, not an independent audit |
| Full 5-year US-style cost-to-own | being itemized | We never guess swap-fee or currency figures |
Why electric wins on energy in Kenya. Independent of Stima's own claim, the local arithmetic 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.
There is not yet a large, independent owner-reliability record to summarise, and the hardware is a partner's. We will not invent owner quotes or themes. Here is what can be said responsibly.
For a swap-network bike, "parts" is two questions: ordinary spares, and swap-station density. The second matters more.
The local-assembly alliance with One Electric and Mobius Motors should help with ordinary consumables and service over time. The decisive factor is the swap-station network: how many stations Stima runs in your area, and how reliably each holds charged packs. We do not have a verified current station count to publish, so confirm coverage 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 Stima / partners |
| Battery (leased, not owned) | network handles it | swapped, not bought |
| Current station count | not published here | ask Stima |
One scorecard, identical axes on every bike.
Every e-moto on the site is scored on these same eight axes, by the same rules. Thin public data and partner-supplied hardware pull 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. No sourced motor wattage for this config means no horsepower claim.
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 | Stima's fee schedule 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 and partner 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 partner pages state claimed specs; treat them as marketing figures, not independent tests. Battery voltage and amp-hours, motor wattage, weight, and seat height are not published in a verifiable form and are left blank. We re-check prices and tariffs periodically because they move quickly.