Tides of transition: vehicle flows, afterlives, and the remaking of mobility in Africa

Journal article

The geography of vehicle exports to Africa is shifting from established North–South circuits of second-hand automobiles to emerging East–South exchanges led by China and India. Unsettling longstanding geopolitical hierarchies, the growing influx of used cars and electric two- and three-wheelers from the Global East is reshaping mobility cultures and infrastructures, regimes of value, and livelihood across the continent. However, this influx risks exacerbating existing, or creating new socio-environmental burdens, related to road traffic crashes, toxic end-of-life vehicles and electric vehicle batteries. These issues illuminate the tensions of low-carbon transitions globally, extending both access to affordable green mobility technologies and the associated human-environmental hazards. Africa’s position within these evolving automotive geographies reveals the spatial and moral asymmetries of global mobility transitions.

Authors: Mittal, G; Boateng, FG; Schwanen, T

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Berghahn Journals
• Journal: Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies
• Acceptance date: 2026-01-05
• EISSN: 2045-4821
• ISSN: 2045-4813
• Language: English
• Keywords: electric mobility; end-of-life vehicles; mobility transitions; mobility justice; vehicle exports