{"id":770937,"date":"2024-05-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=770937"},"modified":"2024-05-08T09:20:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T07:20:04","slug":"south-africa-has-barely-entered-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/770937\/south-africa-has-barely-entered-the-race\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa has barely entered the race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South Africa is lagging behind other nations spectacularly when it comes to the sale of electric vehicles (EVs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/charts.theoutlier.co.za\/chart\/87178\">recent analysis<\/a> conducted by The Outlier showed that South Africa only sold 1,080 EVs in 2023 &#8211; hundreds of thousands of units behind countries with similar population sizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the&nbsp;International Energy Agency, the total number of sales of EVs in 2023 in various locations were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>China &#8211; 8.1 million<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>USA &#8211; 1.4&nbsp;million<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>European Union &#8211; 2.4&nbsp;million<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>South Africa &#8211; 1,080<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/EV-version-3.png\" alt=\"EV 2024-05-07\" style=\"width:627px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Graphic: <a href=\"https:\/\/charts.theoutlier.co.za\/chart\/87178\">The Outlier<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The high price range, lack of variety and charging stations are some reasons why South Africans have been slow to take to the green road,&#8221; said The Outlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the electric vehicles available in South Africa are high-end cars from manufacturers such as Volvo, Porsche and Mini, with a starting price of around R642,000, meaning that accessibility remains relatively limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hopeful EV boom in South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the relatively slow pace of sales compared to other nations, South Africa has been looking to make progress in creating an environment suitable for EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Facing electricity challenges, South Africa has outlined a two-phase policy approach for electric vehicle (EV) transition, as detailed in the government&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedtic.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/EV-White-Paper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Electric Vehicle White Paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The global automotive landscape is undergoing profound transformations triggered by climate<br>mitigation and adaptation legislation and the associated technological disruptions,&#8221; it said in the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Failure to transition the automotive industry [in South Africa] will likely result in the loss of key export markets for both assembled vehicles and automotive components,&#8221; for the largest automotive manufacturing hub on the African continent, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This paper said that government policy looks to support the manufacturing and sales of EVs<strong> <\/strong>in South Africa and reduce carbon emissions (which government has made numerous binding commitments to) by incentivising EVs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the strategy emphasises producing and exporting EVs rather than boosting domestic demand and sales in its first phases, hoping that this will make South Africa competitive in a booming EV market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trade minister Ebrahim Patel recently announced a 150% tax deduction on investments in the local production of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles from March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"fBVYL7xEt7\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/761547\/patel-gives-ev-manufacturers-the-green-light-in-south-africa\/\">Patel gives EV manufacturers the green light in South Africa<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Patel gives EV manufacturers the green light in South Africa&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/761547\/patel-gives-ev-manufacturers-the-green-light-in-south-africa\/embed\/#?secret=dkaJvnWqLQ#?secret=fBVYL7xEt7\" data-secret=\"fBVYL7xEt7\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Companies have also been pumping money into setting up renewable charging stations across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/749552\/massive-r1-billion-boost-for-electric-vehicles-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent notable investment<\/a> is that of a South African EV charging station contractor signing a memorandum of understanding with an energy storage systems manufacturer that will bring 120 renewable supercharge stations across South Africa to the value of R1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in 2018, the South African government committed to convert 5% of the public and national fleet to cleaner alternative fuel and efficient technology vehicles by 2025, with annual increase of 2% thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also committed to add 40 solar-powered public EV charging stations per annum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In hopes of accommodating this anticipated boom, Drive South Africa has launched a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drivesouthafrica.com\/ev-charging-stations\/\">new Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Map<\/a> to help drivers find their nearest electric vehicle charging station, with hundreds already operational across the country. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/743949\/8-electric-vehicles-coming-to-south-africa-in-2024\/\">8 electric vehicles coming to South Africa in 2024<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite plans on becoming a key player in the industry, sales of electric vehicles in South Africa is lagging severely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":749582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[19828,19326,18763],"class_list":["post-770937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-ev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770937","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\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770937"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771040,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770937\/revisions\/771040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}