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| This mini is electric, but BMW South Africa is waiting for a change in taxation on ev's to make its pricing in South Africa viable. |
South Africa heard this week that government’s 29% duty on electric vehicles was the main reason why electric
vehicles like this Mini, as well as more robust load carriers, were not being sold
in SA.
At a two-day conference was held to discuss policies for electric vehicles in South Africa on November 6-7 in Auckland Park, Jo’burg.
Participants ranged
from Department of Trade and Industry to Honda, BMW and Mini.
General manager for
Group Communications at BMW, Guy Kilfoil, spoke on the next step of evolution
in Automobility, showcasing the electric mini.
Honda’s director for
sales and marketing, Graham Eagle, spoke about trends in Europe and USA and
made sales forecasts for electric vehicles, hybrids and plug-in hybrids in SA.
Conference organiser for Classic Events, Nigel
Brown said while the gathering encouraged discussion between the various role
players, which include industry, city planners and entrepreneurs, the main aim
was to get direction from the Trade and Industry’s chief director on automotive
matters, Mkhululi Mlota.
One of the entrepreneurs,
Stuart Elliot of Cape-based Melex Electrovehicles, said a 29% duty on electric
vehicles like golf carts, scooters and buses, was one of the main stumbling blocks
to growth in the electric vehicle industry.
Eliot told The Witness
that, based on his experience in China, South Africans could use two types of
electric vehicles – cheaper but robust load carriers for farm or factory use, and
expensive cars like Nissan’s Leaf, which retails elsewhere in the world for
some R450 000.
Elliot said Melex had
a road-legal, electric half-ton bakkie which had already proven to be 54%
cheaper to run and maintain than a Corsa Bakkie and cost from R70 000.
He said Melex had also
entered into a joint-venture with the University of the Western Cape to develop
power systems to use in light commercial applications, like staff buses and last-mile-delivery
bakkies. They plan to announce the results of this joint venture next month and
to begin manufacture commercially early next year.
While Eliot did not
want to say to much ahead of next month’s announcement, he could reveal to The
Witness that the SA-made power systems had a range of 120 km on their test unit,
with a solar roof that increased this range by 18 km.
He said the local
demand was to ferry loads over short distances. “I don’t believe range beyond
100 km is much of an issue with our target market, as we are looking at local
deliveries, campuses, take-aways, chemists, etc.
“We have two units running
in Gauteng, driving 20 km per day to ferry office workers from a Gautrain
Station to a head office. The [AA rates] per kilometre - including charging,
extended warranty, on site maintenance, insurance and licensing - is R4,01 per
km,” Eliot said. He said AA rates for a 2.4 diesel taxi or bakkie was R9,07/km.
He said the company have
already sold more than a dozen 14-seat shuttle busses which can carry 1,5 tons
and are currently used to shuttle staff on factory premises.
“These are not yet
road legal and we also need an EV vehicle framework in SA that allows low speed
vehicles on certain roads, he said. He added a large number of customer are for
such feeder vehicles, which were 60% cheaper to buy and run than similar
vehicles with internal combustion engines, which costs included charging,
maintenance and insurance.
