While online searches for electric vehicles (EVs) continue to soar in SA, consumers are choosing to delay their purchase of electric cars.
This is one of the key findings of the newly-released 2022 AutoTrader Electric Vehicle Buyers Survey, which analyses vehicle shoppers’ buying patterns in SA’s largest motoring marketplace for buyers and sellers.
The survey provides insights into consumer perception, expectation, purchase intent, awareness and trust of EVs. The findings were released yesterday at the Smarter Mobility Africa Summit 2022, by AutoTrader CEO George Mienie.
The study is based on an online study on AutoTrader’s website, which generated over 2 800 responses.
Being able to draw on demand, supply and pricing data from over 10 million monthly readers, AutoTrader believes it is able to tap into the minds of car shoppers around the future of EVs in South Africa.
According to the study, locals are increasingly choosing to delay their decision to purchase an EV. The number of respondents who stated they would purchase an EV within the next five years dropped – from 74% in 2020 to 72% in 2021.
When asked when they would consider purchasing an electric vehicle, most surveyed South Africans expect to purchase an EV from 2027 and beyond.
This is mainly because EVs remain out of reach for more than two-thirds of consumers in SA, as the initial high cost of purchasing the vehicle is a big disadvantage.
EVs in SA have the added disadvantage of incurring substantial taxes – internal combustion engine (ICE) automobiles attract import duties of 18%, versus 25% for EVs – causing the cost of an EV to be more than double that of the average price of a new ICE vehicle of a similar make/model in SA.
Another challenge is the vehicle model supply issue – there are only five EVs for sale in SA: Porsche Taycan, Jaguar I-PACE, BMW 3, Mini SE and Volvo XC40 P8 Recharge.
One of the best ways to increase adoption in SA is to have a wide range of EV models catering to different classifications of buyers.
With the entry price for a new EV being higher than what most consumers are willing to spend, respondents were asked if they would consider a used EV and why. Some 49.5% said they would consider a used EV over a new EV, due to the reduced cost.
“Buyers postponing their purchasing decisions does not signify lack of interest. Interestingly, this is due to two main reasons: significant work has been done over the last year, with more education being provided to automotive consumers and industry,” explains Mienie.
“Being better informed has allowed South Africans to delay their EV purchase, as they get a better understanding of what it means to own one, and what the benefits and disadvantages are.”
Secondly, notes Mienie, consumers are taking a “wait-and-see” approach to buying EVs because they are still exploring the option of going for a battery electric vehicle, or hybrid vehicle, instead of a fully electric vehicle.
“We expect that 37% of shoppers will consider an EV in future, and of those, half will consider a hybrid vehicle. We are expecting the number of hybrid shoppers to increase until the prices of the fully electric goes down.
“As industry stakeholders, more still needs to be done to secure the future of the industry, while not depending only on government to facilitate the change.”
Lower running costs
SA is seeing slow but steady growth of 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.
The report notes EV searches continue to surge on the AutoTrader website.
In the first half of 2022, EV searches using the fuel-type filter increased by 99.95% year-on-year, while hybrid searches soared by 129%.
EV views rose 133%, with the Porsche Taycan, Audi RS e-tron and Audi e-tron being the three most viewed EVs, according to AutoTrader data.
“Significantly, enquiries for EVs rose 74.75%, while hybrid enquiries rose 77.77%. The increase in enquiries indicates consumers are most likely to buy,” says the report.
Inadequate charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (59%) and charging time (58%) were cited as second major disadvantages of owning an EV, after the high costs.
Some 25.7% of respondents found “range anxiety” to be another disadvantage, which in previous years has been the largest concern, but is similar to the level of concern in 2020.
“In order to make EVs more accessible to the general motoring public, a few outcomes will need to be met. These include lowering EV import tariffs; technology innovation, particularly battery technology; local manufacturing of equipment, such as batteries; and government introducing supportive regulatory frameworks,” says the study.
Last year, president Cyril Ramaphosa announced government is paving the way for the local production of EVs, as part of the new Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP), which came into operation in July.
The APDP calls for a globally competitive and transformed industry that actively contributes to the sustainable development of SA’s productive economy, creating prosperity for industry stakeholders and the broader society, Ramaphosa noted.
Surveyed consumers were also asked about their perception on how fast EVs may depreciate versus current ICE vehicles. In 2021, the results were almost identical to 2020 – 54.2% of respondents believe an electric vehicle will hold its value better than petrol/diesel vehicles.
Respondents were asked if they knew that running costs for an EV were lower than a petrol/diesel vehicle, would they be willing to pay more upfront; 68.2% of respondents stated they would be willing to pay more for an EV upfront.
According to the report, on average, an EV costs about 75% less to ‘refuel’ versus an internal combustion engine car.
The respondents cited the three most trusted EV brands as BMW, Tesla and Toyota, despite Tesla not having a presence or offering in SA.
Share