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| The author and his son with the first all-electic scooter in KwaZulu-Natal, a Whispa from China. |
DARIO’S Cafe in Hout Bay, Cape Town, will become South Africa’s
first venue to offer gratis charging points for electric cars and
scooters.
Councillor Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport for
the City of Cape Town, will officially launch the new electric vehicle charge
points on Sunday. The points will be able to charge the latest clean electric
vehicles from Nissan and BMW as well as electric scooters from Ewizz.
Ewizz proprietor and electric vehicle proponent Andy le May told
Wheels that his entire range of Ewizz
electric scooters and motorcycles can top-up at Dario’s Café, increasing the
usability of their electric vehicles by extending the range.
“Our aim is to create a public network available to all electric
vehicles. So ours are max 16A with a normal three-pin plug socket and thus are a
tiny fraction of the cost to install. This is just what you need around
town.”
Le May said his entry level Spark 3 scooter sells for R19 000 and
costs about six cents per km to run. “With 10 000 km, or yearly, service
intervals, the Spark 3 electric scooter is ridiculously inexpensive and can be
recharge while you work. Like Tesla cars, the software controlling all 2016
model year scooters can also be regularly upgraded.”
Le May told Wheels the
next step is to rent out scooters in Cape Town as the cheapest way for young
people to commute.
Several cities in the world are renting scooters, but the best case
study is set by Scoot, a rental company in San Francisco that maintains a fleet
of over 400 scooters, which are parked and recharged in garages all over the
city. “We are developing specialist monitoring and tracking electronics
specifically for electric scooters and will next look for a partner or partners
to join us,” said Le May.
