According to AutoTrader CEO George Mienie, the platform has seen a 211 percent increase in searches in the first six months of this year compared to last. It is a fast maturing segment of the auto industry, but South Africa is still lagging behind due to two main factors – price and infrastructure.
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“South African shoppers are actively looking for opportunities to buy electric vehicles, though the major challenge is still the initial purchase price,” Mienie said. “Consumers want an EV under R500 000. That is where the debate should be centred – education and price and looking at things like incentives, government taxes.”
According to Busmark SA CEO Patuxolo Nodada, the company has had an electric bus available for about eight years but it’s not yet on the road because there is no charging infrastructure. He added that he believes it should be government policy that fleet owners with buses should be 50% electric going forward.
“There is an opportunity for all of us to go to zero emissions through public vehicles without necessarily promoting electric vehicles,” said Nodada. “We have an EV that costs less than R500 000. We have it designed and a prototype that has been standing for quite some time and that vehicle could be delivered into the market.”
Mienie said that 87% of AutoTrader respondents to the South African EV Buyers Survey has never been in an electric vehicle. Customer education can go a long way to highlighting the benefits of electric vehicles, with a poper understanding of its current shortcomings. Mienie has also said that the supply of EVs in the country has been lacking, mostly due to the slow take-up rate. But that I showing signed of changing – there are another eight electric vehicles that will launch in South Africa by the end of Q1 2022. By June 2021, about 1 400 plug-in EVs had been sold in the country. That is 0.014% of our total car fleet of 10 million vehicles.
“BMW has just said they are going to put 25 hybrids and battery EVs on South African roads by 2023, which is also encouraging,” he said.
