Rivian Spinout Also Quietly Shelved Its Kenya Electric Motorcycle Pilot

Also, the micromobility startup spun out of Rivian in 2025, started and then walked away from an electric two-wheeler pilot in Kenya earlier this year, TechCrunch has learned. The startup wanted its resources focused on its consumer e-bike and autonomous vehicle ambitions instead.

The Kenya project received grant funding from the Shell Foundation, an independent charity established by Shell plc. A section of the foundation's website, since removed, said the goal was to "enable and de-risk global OEM entry into Africa's EV market by piloting a locally integrated electric two-wheeler platform in Kenya, with potential to scale across East Africa."

According to that deleted section, Also was expected to work on modular battery designs and distributed EV charging, and planned on "developing a purpose-built electric motorcycle for African riders."

How big was the opportunity?

The market case looked strong. African mobility company Spiro recently said it has more than 130,000 electric motorcycles operating across seven countries, plus 2,500 battery-swapping stations. That boom has drawn Chinese mobility companies and investors pouring resources into the space.

Still, Also passed. In a September email to TechCrunch, the company said it had "explored this project" with an unnamed partner but "decided to focus on its core roadmap" after completing only "some early-stage work." Also said the Shell Foundation grant funding "will follow the project to support its ongoing development," but declined to offer specifics.

The Shell Foundation said in an email that the project was "intended to generate evidence on driver income uplift potential, operational performance and commercial viability to deepen the company's understanding of the market opportunity." When TechCrunch asked for more specifics, the foundation declined, citing a nondisclosure agreement with Also. Days later, the project vanished from its website.

Why did autonomy win?

Chris Yu, Also's co-founder and president, explained the decision in an interview last month at TechCrunch Disrupt. He said the Kenya pilot initially fit Also's mission of building small, purpose-built vehicles that are "first and foremost cost-optimized to do the job that needs to be done in a particular market."

But other projects took precedence — especially small autonomous vehicles, which Also is developing with DoorDash.

"We piloted and ultimately decided, largely because of just urgency and pace around autonomy, frankly, that our attention would be best, in the near term, served fully focused" on that, Yu said. He added that he thinks there's a "high chance that autonomy will show up first, and at a broader scale in these types of purpose-built smaller vehicles than at scale in passenger vehicles."

What happened in Also's first year?

The Kenya exit came during a rocky first year of independence. Supply chain problems forced repeated delays of the company's first product, a premium e-bike called the TM-B, frustrating reservation holders. Also said little for much of 2026 about when the bikes would arrive — a communication failure its leadership now admits was a mistake.

"I think we did a pretty poor job communicating to our reservation holders through the summer when they were all waiting, and we got called out for that," Yu said. "But I think it's actually great. It's really hard to earn the opportunity for people to care, and to tell us what they think, and to help us improve."

Yu said no single problem caused the delays. Also spent much of the year playing supply chain Whac-A-Mole — a particular challenge for a bike he described as "kind of a computer on wheels." At one point, the company competed for the same raw materials used to make printed circuit boards for AI data centers. At other times, it struggled with certification requirements across different government agencies.

New problems surfaced almost weekly, which made reliable customer updates difficult. "The entire team is like running at a million miles an hour to get these things produced and shipped to customers, and then it's also really dynamic as well," Yu said. "I think what we could have done better is just [say], straight up: 'We're chasing down these things, we'll have an update shortly.'"

The TM-B finally started shipping in early October. Also's communication has since improved, earning goodwill from customers on Reddit — goodwill it will need. Early customers have already reported delivery damage and noticeable battery drain.

The stakes reach beyond the TM-B. Also plans to sell commercial cargo bikes, including four-wheeled models, to companies like Amazon, alongside the DoorDash autonomous vehicle partnership. Yu said those products are next in the pipeline and represent bigger revenue opportunities — provided the first launch holds.