Apparently, due to the high cost of fuel import, Ethiopia decided to ban the import of ICE cars right now, narrowly beating out other countries such a Norway. 😲
Ethiopia spent nearly $6 billion to import fossil fuels last year — with more than half of that spending going to fuel vehicles. In response, Ethiopia’s Transport and Logistics Ministries have announced that automobiles cannot enter Ethiopia, unless they are electric. (!)
Last February, the European Union approved a law that would ban the sale of combustion engine cars in its member states from 2035 — joining several US states, Canada, Japan, Singapore, India, New Zealand, and a number of other nations with similar bans already on the books (see chart, below). Ethiopia, however, isn’t waiting for 2035.
Ethiopia is trying to ban ICE vehicles now.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/02/it-begins-ethiopia-set-to-become-first-country-to-ban-internal-combustion-cars/
According to other sources the switch is a little (?!) rough, but things should get better eventually. https://restofworld.org/2024/ethiopia-gas-car-ban-ev-chargers/
Some more background info: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/17/climate/ethiopia-evs-gas-car-ban-climate/index.html
Didn’t read the official announcement, but based on what I read in various news articles, they did not ban local manufacturing, but that is not an easily exploitable loophole.