Power utility Eskom's inconsistent electricity supply poses a threat to the growth of the electric vehicle (EV) market in South Africa, with motorists hesitant to purchase EVs.
This was the word from Randall Williams, executive mayor of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, speaking at the Smarter Mobility Africa Summit 2022 in Tshwane this week.
Responding to ITWeb’s question about the challenges hindering SA’s EV market from progressing, Williams cited load-shedding as a key threat.
SA is seeing slow but steady growth of EV adoption compared to the rest of the globe, reaching a total of 1 559 EV units sold at the beginning of 2022.
While SA is leading other African countries in EV adoption, in comparison to other emerging markets like India and Mexico, the country is falling behind.
According to Williams, other challenges facing the sector include lack of adequate infrastructure and the lack of government incentives for those who opt to purchase EVs.
“It’s difficult to promote the use of electric vehicles when the country has six to eight hours of load-shedding per day.
“In order to resolve certain issues, such as infrastructure, we need to ask one question: What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do we put the charging infrastructure in place first and end up with a situation where there is sufficient infrastructure and no vehicles, or do we promote the buying of vehicles when there is currently not enough infrastructure in place?”
Over the past few years, SA has repeatedly been plunged into darkness due to Eskom not being able to meet electricity demand – most recently escalating the load-shedding schedule to stage six.
The power utility has been experiencing severe financial and operational challenges due to several factors, from state capture to poor maintenance of its power plants, exacerbated by ever-increasing diesel and maintenance costs.
While EVs are a potential answer to the rising fuel prices and carbon emissions, their future success in the local market will be determined by factors such as reliable power supply, affordability and infrastructure.
Governments across the globe have been increasingly introducing policies or strengthening existing policies to ensure an uptake in EV purchases, in efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
Norway is the world’s biggest EV market. The country has long been hailed as a leader in the race to adopt electric cars, largely attributed to the many incentives and tax benefits for EV owners. Almost 65% of new passenger cars sold in Norway in 2021 were electric and 22% were plug-in hybrids, according to Time Magazine.
“From what we have seen across the globe, Scandinavian countries would promote the selling of EVs, like in Norway, for instance. This is done through the government subsidising the EV market. Unfortunately, government in SA is not in a position to provide the same level of subsidies to the industry. So as long as we don’t have that in place, I doubt EVs will take off over the next few years,” commented Williams.
Also speaking at the event, George Mienie, AutoTrader CEO, pointed out that load-shedding will only pose a threat to the EV market in future – when there are more such vehicles on local roads.
“Load-shedding is not a problem right now because the EV numbers are low. It may become a problem at a later stage when SA scales the number of EVs on the roads. When there are many cars drawing on the grid at the same time, this could present a problem,” explained Mienie.
“Unless we get to stage eight, nine or 10, then there will be a problem. If you think about the requirements of charging an EV – which is about two hours a day – you will realise that whether there is four hours or six hours of load-shedding a day, a driver should be able to get two hours of charge time during the course of the day when power is available.”
Mienie is optimistic that by the time there is an influx of EVs on local roads − in about 10 years – SA will have introduced numerous alternative power sources that will be plugged into the national grid.
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