The government is keen to ensure that SA develops production capacity of electric vehicles in what is anticipated to be a growing part of the car market.
“We are keen to ensure that SA develops production capacity in what is anticipated to be a growing part of the car market,” trade and industry minister Ebrahim Patel said in a parliamentary reply to a question by the DA.
The minister said support for the importation and production of motor vehicles, under which electric vehicles would ordinarily fall, was covered under the Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP).
Under the APDP, light motor vehicles including electric vehicles can be imported into the country with the use of rebate credit certificates earned. 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 SA, said Patel.
In recent years, China and the US have ramped up the production of electric cars to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to curb air pollution and climate change.
In SA, fewer than 1,000 electric vehicles have been imported to date, and no vehicle manufacturer currently assembles electric or hybrid vehicles in the country. BMW's i3 and i8, and Jaguar’s I-Pace are some of electric vehicle models currently available in SA.
British futurologist Ian Pearson has forecast that by 2026, the electric car will overtake its petrol-powered cousins in terms of global sales.
Patel says he is in discussion with the automobile sector regarding the production of electric or hybrid vehicles locally.
Recently, Nissan, Volkswagen and BMW said they would collaborate to advance electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid vehicle adoption in SA. The vehicle manufacturers have agreed jointly to plan and build a national grid of charging stations that would power electric cars.
Earlier in August, Bloomberg reported that the industry is preparing a unified stance on electrification to present to the government by the end of the year. Mike Mabasa, CEO of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa), told the news agency that manufacturers would lobby government to reduce the a 23% import tariff on electric vehicles to boost domestic sales.
However, the erratic nature of electricity supply in SA and the crisis at power utility Eskom could hinder efforts to boost electric-car sales. The utility has been forced to implement intermittent rolling blackouts and is reliant on coal, which is out of step with the environmentally friendly advantages of producing electric cars, Mabasa said. Therefore, the industry paper is likely to lay out a mixture of power sources between Eskom and privately owned renewable energy projects, he said.
According to the department of transport, electric cars are set to grow in popularity as public charging stations become more widely available.
“According to GridCars, the largest installer of public charging stations in SA, they will have 200 EV charging stations installed in the country by the end of March 2019 in collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover SA, BMW SA and Shell SA,” then transport minister Blade Nzimande said during a question-and-answer session in Parliament earlier in 2019.
The charging stations will be located along major national routes and at various points of convenience, such as shopping centres, in the country’s major hubs, including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Bloemfontein.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.