{"id":338275,"date":"2019-09-02T09:31:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T07:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=338275"},"modified":"2019-09-02T09:36:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T07:36:15","slug":"elon-musk-on-why-tesla-is-not-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/338275\/elon-musk-on-why-tesla-is-not-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk on why Tesla is not in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African motorists may have to wait a while for the official launch of Tesla vehicles in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1166854343770988544\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet<\/a> <\/strong>on Thursday (29 August), Musk indicated that the country&#8217;s high tariffs are currently impacting the launch of the cars in the county.<\/p>\n<p>Musk said that he &#8216;would love to&#8217; bring Tesla to the country but that &#8216;import duties are extremely high, even for electric vehicles&#8217;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Would love to, but import duties are extremely high, even for electric vehicles<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1166854343770988544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Responding in a recent parliamentary Q&amp;A session, minister of Trade and Industry Ebrahim Patel said that the country does not currently subsidise the import or production of electric vehicles, but was working on plans to change this.<\/p>\n<p>Support for the importation and production of motor vehicles, under which electric vehicles would ordinarily fall, is covered under the Automotive Production and Development Program (APDP), he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Under the APDP, light motor vehicles including electric vehicles can be imported into the country with the use of rebate credit certificates earned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Such certificates allow the importer to offset import duties, where the importer assembles vehicles locally. This incentivises the development and expansion of vehicle production in South Africa.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Patel added that\u00a0fewer than 1, 000 electric vehicles have been imported to date; and no auto manufacturer currently assembles electric or hybrid vehicles in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am in discussion with the automobile sector in South Africa regarding the production of electric or hybrid vehicles locally.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are keen to ensure that South Africa develops production capacity in what is anticipated to be a growing part of the car market. On conclusion of the discussions, a formal statement will be made.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/320981\/elon-musk-gives-first-details-on-new-tesla-bakkie-including-early-pricing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elon Musk gives first details on new Tesla bakkie \u2013 including early pricing<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African motorists may have to wait a while for the official launch of Tesla vehicles in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":302138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-338275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338275","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=338275"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338299,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338275\/revisions\/338299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}