{"id":116844,"date":"2016-03-15T14:25:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T12:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=116844"},"modified":"2016-03-15T14:25:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T12:25:19","slug":"bmw-is-bringing-solar-charging-ports-to-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/116844\/bmw-is-bringing-solar-charging-ports-to-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"BMW is bringing solar charging ports to South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>German car maker BMW says it will introduce solar power charging stations in South Africa by way of a pilot programme before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Tim Abbott, BMW South Africa MD, told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business\/companies\/bmw-to-bring-solar-charging-stations-to-sa-1995239\" target=\"_blank\">IOL<\/a> that at least four pilot solar ports would be constructed for customers with electric vehicles in Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban.<\/p>\n<p>He said that the company would probably partner with the likes of major banks or supermarkets going forward.<\/p>\n<p>According to BMW, since launching the BMW i3 and BMW i8 in South Africa in March 2015, it has delivered 248 of these vehicles to customers.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of public charging infrastructure, the company said that it has a charger in Melrose Arch and will be rolling out more in 2016 in some of the major metropolitan areas throughout South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>To activate a free charge, BMW i3 and i8 owners need to swipe their ChargeNow cards as per the prompts on the AC charging station.<\/p>\n<p>The ChargeNow cards are issued to all BMW i customers upon the purchase of BMW i vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the new public charging infrastructure at Melrose Arch, BMW i owners can also visit exclusive BMW i dealers &#8211; BMW Sandton Auto in Johannesburg; Club Motors Fountains in Pretoria; SMG Cape Town; and Supertech Durban &#8211; to charge their vehicles, which takes about 30 to 45 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are also rolling out more charging stations in some of our BMW dealerships,&#8221; said Edward Makwana, manager: Group Product Communications at BMW.<\/p>\n<p>The BMW i3 starts at R540,500 in South Africa, with an i3 REX priced at R611,500. An i8 costs R1.8 million.<\/p>\n<p>The solar carport will look similar to the ones shown below:<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/bmw-e1458043036853.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-116852\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-116852\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/bmw-e1458043036853.jpg\" alt=\"bmw\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/BMW1--e1458043075640.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-116854\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-116854\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/BMW1--e1458043075640.jpg\" alt=\"BMW1-\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In 2014, BMW partnered with Schneider Electric to help with the installation of a wallbox charging point in customers\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_66900\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger-2.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-66900\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66900\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66900\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger-2.png\" alt=\"BMW wall charger\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger-2.png 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger-2-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-66900\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BMW wall charger<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_66902\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-66902\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66902\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66902\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger.png\" alt=\"BMW wall charger\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger.png 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/BMW-wall-charger-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-66902\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BMW wall charger<\/p><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QSXsyFsDVec\" width=\"640\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on BMW<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/hardware\/66882\/bmw-readies-sa-market-for-i3-electric-car\/\">BMW readies SA market for i3 electric car<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/106101\/driving-electric-vs-petrol-cars-in-south-africa\/\">Driving electric vs petrol cars in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/88464\/electric-vehicle-charging-grid-plan-for-sa\/\">Electric vehicle charging grid plan for SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/84685\/rich-joburg-suburb-to-install-electric-car-charging-points\/\">Rich Joburg suburb to install electric car charging points<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>German car maker BMW says it will introduce solar power charging stations in South Africa by way of a pilot programme before the end of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":116846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[5365,26],"class_list":["post-116844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-bmw","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116844"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116872,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116844\/revisions\/116872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}