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| If Evia succeeds, tailpipes will be for decoration only. |
JOHANNESBURG — Five pioneering companies of South Africa’s emerging
electric vehicle (EV) industry met on Monday to launch the Electric Vehicle
Industry Association (Evia) at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in
Sandton.
Evia aims to accelerate clean transport, investor confidence in the
sector and meet government commitments to reduce emissions, and is endorsed by
the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The pioneering companies are BMW SA, Gridcars, Nissan SA, the SA
National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi) and Uyilo, a programme of the
Technology Innovation Agency (TIA). Participants will include government
departments and agencies, other EV manufacturers, as well as electricity
infrastructure and smart grid providers.
Evia will serve as a lobby group, enabling industry to work
effectively with the government and researchers to stimulate the sector and to
align policies and introduce incentives to support the development of EV
technologies.
“Evia is now a powerful industry body committed to working with the
government to develop electric mobility in South Africa,” says Kevin Nassiep,
Sanedi chief executive. “By ensuring policy alignment, we will help to reduce
investor uncertainty in a sector which has boomed internationally but been a
slow starter in SA.”
The Evia charter commits it to helping the state curb emissions by
introducing electric mobility to the transport sector, and to meet international
commitments signed at COP21 in Paris. Its members will help the government
identify regulatory gaps and deliver on key policies such as DTI’s Industrial
Policy Action Plan and the Department of Transport’s draft green transport
strategy. The new body will support the deployment of public EV infrastructure,
and facilitate installation of fast charge units where most needed by motorists.
It will advocate for renewable energy as a mainstream source of power for
transport, homes and businesses.
Evia’s partners are already working with TIA’s uYilo programme on
standardisation of charging infrastructure for battery electric vehicles (BEV)
and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). This will result in all EVs from
all manufacturers being able to charge at the same location.
“We’ve learnt the lessons from the cellphone and laptop sector, and
will avoid the frustrating range of incompatible chargers that would hamper the
uptake of EVs,” says TIA chief executive Barlow Manilal. — WR.
