This company is building an electric car charging ‘highway’ for South Africa
Listed ICT group Alviva, through its recently acquired business Gridcars, aims to create a road map of charging stations for electric vehicles in South Africa.
Alviva, formerly Pinnacle Holdings, said in presentation on Thursday (6 September), that it expects to have as many as 56 stations by November. The company won a contract with Jaguar Land Rover to supply locally manufactured charges to 32 dealerships.
Gridcars is a Pretoria-based developer of electric vehicle charge point software management systems and supplier of charge points. The group manufacturers its own charge points.
Group CEO, Pierre Spies, stressed that he doesn’t expect significant take-up or revenue through this business, noting that he expects to recoup the R20 million investment within two and a half years.
Data from analytics group Lightstone showed that by the start of 2018, only 375 electric vehicles had been sold in South Africa since the inception of electrically powered vehicles (EV) locally. Early adopters included the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 and i8.
Manufacturers have committed to much bigger plays in this space however, with Jaguar Land Rover South Africa saying it is committed to an “electrified future” with its first all-electric and hybrid models arriving in South Africa in January.
The group’s footprint will include partner branded shopping centres, partner branded sites, and GridCar branded site, with additional revenue created through advertising.
“We will sell the electricity, but own the infrastructure,” Spies said.
Map key:
- Blue Charge Point: GridCars branded site
- Green Charge Point: GridCars branded shopping centre site
- Pink Charge Point: Partner branded site
- Yellow Charge Point: Partner branded shopping centre site
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