Here are the destinations for unused gas guzzlers as the West moves rapidly toward electric vehicles.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/21/africa/west-africa-benin-used-cars-climate-intl/index.html
Author: Nimi Princewill and Ella Nilsen,
The 2008 Ford Escape that Yaya has his eye on is up for sale for about $4,000. He wants to switch from his motorcycle to a car, and it's reasonably priced (US cars are less expensive than most other brands in the lot). He claimed that he is not concerned with the car's past and is only concerned with whether he can afford it.
However, the way that this Ford wound up at this location—one of the largest auto lots in the port city of Cotonou—helps tell a larger tale about how many gas-guzzling vehicles from the West are beginning second lives in West Africa.The 14-year-old Ford was purchased at an auto auction and transpod to Benin from the United States last year.
According to car records seen by CNN, it had three prior owners in Virginia and Maryland and had driven more than 252,000 miles. It had one prior power steering recall, but unlike some of the other vehicles on the lot, it arrived in rather good shape because there had been no repod incidents.
This old SUV is just one of the millions of used vehicles that come from developed nations like Japan, South Korea, Europe, and increasingly the US each year to West Africa. One of Africa's main destinations for used car imports is Benin, where many of these end up.