EV disadvantages

But there are also two major practical disadvantages of EVs over ICEs. The first is the high initial purchase price, particularly in South Africa. For some strange reason, import duties on EVs are higher than on ICEs, at 25%, perhaps indicating that the South African government is not actually ready to welcome them into the country in numbers.

According to Mark Raine, co-CEO of Mercedes-Benz South Africa, South Africa is the only country in the world where EVs are disadvantaged like this. This is in stark contrast to developed markets such as certain US states and Norway, where tax incentives to buy EVs have played an important role in their adoption. In Norway, where there are tax incentives to owning an EV, one in five cars (20%) on the roads is already electric, and in another two years that percentage will go up to 30%. The country has an incredible goal of all new cars being sold from 2025 being electric.

Then there is the dual concern of range and charging times, which the South African landscape and lifestyle brings into sharp focus.

“I would say a major issue is that the typical driving needs of a South African differs from, say, a European,” says Hamilton. “Our cities are more sprawled out, our suburbs often located very far from CBDs, and the distances between towns and cities are immense in European terms. This means that we drive more, further and faster. Let me use an example: one of the most popular EVs in Europe right now is the Citroen Ami, which measures about 2.4m long and 1.4m wide. It also only has a top speed of 48km/h. Perfect for inner-city Paris, but not so much for a typical Joburger.”

If we return to Tesla’s market capitalisation, we’d be forgiven for assuming that Tesla is outselling its more traditional rivals by a matter of factors. But in reality, only 1% of vehicles on the road in the US – the world’s biggest car market – are electric. Toyota sells more than 10 million cars a year, while Tesla has sold a total of just over 3 million vehicles since 2008.

This is increasing every year, but the company’s record year as of the end of 2021 was just under a million units. Research indicates that even developed nations such as the US are far from the electric vehicle tipping point – with more than 278 million ICE vehicles on the road, it will take decades for EVs to replace them. In May 2021, only 4.6% of vehicles registered in the US were electric.

If that’s the case in the States, a country like ours still has a long road ahead. Yes, our hands will be forced as vehicle manufacturers are required by European legislation to stop manufacturing ICE vehicles, but this will still take decades to trickle down.

According to Hamilton, there are three focus areas that South Africa needs to address before EVs can be embraced by the mainstream:

• The first is to develop a reliable and dispersed charging infrastructure.
• Second, EV technology must still develop in such a way to allow for quicker charging and longer usage distances.
• Finally, EVs must become much more affordable.

South Africa will need to find a way of addressing the topic of charging, which we can’t necessarily do in the same way as it is done in European markets due to security issues. In London, for example, there were already 8 600 EV charging stations at the end of 2019, while France has well over 40 000 charging points. Fuel stations, shopping centres and parking garages are all popular sites for charging stations, while there are also more creative solutions such as more than 1 000 streetlights in London being retrofitted as chargers (see sidebar).

EV technology is developing quickly, and one major technological development on the horizon is solid-state batteries. We won’t go into the technical details of how or why, but solid-state batteries are quicker to charge and hold their charge for longer, which means that smaller batteries will produce more power than current, liquid-state batteries. Companies such as Toyota and Mercedes-Benz have invested in solid-state battery research and development, and there is a real possibility that this technology will move from prototype to commercial production within the next few years.

As for affordability, South Africa could deal with this issue with the swipe of a pen – if duties on EVs are done away with, they will instantly become affordable to more than the wealthy few.

One final issue needs to be considered, that elephant in a dark room: Eskom. While South Africa battles with load-shedding, our infrastructure simply isn’t stable enough to rely on for vehicle charging.

So what is the conclusion?

Electric vehicles are brilliant, but they are not practical for South Africans as a primary or only vehicle, right now. As a second car for commuting and the school run, they are already a brilliant option, but the price premium negates the financial savings on fuel.

Big things are on the horizon, though, and that’s before we even look at technology such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles…

To see a map of charging points in South Africa, visit www.chargestations.co.za or www.plugshare.com.