Electric vehicles are the future of motorised transport, but South Africa is still stuck in a carbon past

As calls for more sustainable practices reverberate throughout the world as tell-tale signs of climate change become starker, at the fore of this conversation are electric vehicles (EV).

Simply put, this automotive class has an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine. Globally, approximately seven million EVs were sold just last year. Between 2011 and 2015, annual sales grew by almost 90%. The United Kingdom has even set the ambitious aim of banning the sales of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030.

Despite global leaps towards the EV industry, South Africa lags woefully behind. A total of 218 EVs were sold in South Africa in 2021. Although this was more than double the previous year’s volume, this accounts for less than 0.05% of all vehicle sales recorded. These figures indicate that this is not a practice we readily embrace.

The argument for EVs as the world fights carbon emissions is backed by commitments such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, concerns around increasing air pollution in urban areas and the volatility of oil prices in recent months – factors that implicitly impact South Africa.

For example, the automotive industry in South Africa is among the highest carbon (CO2) emitters globally, responsible for an estimated 20% of total emissions and considered the third highest contributor to air pollution. It is estimated that, on average, one electric car saves 1.5 million grammes of CO2 in a year.

In the last five years, fuel prices in South Africa have more than doubled. In 2017, 95 octane petrol inland cost R12.86 per litre compared to R26.74 per litre in the same period in 2022, with little indication of reprieve in the coming months. It is apparent that from an environmental and economic perspective, EVs are indeed the way of the future. Yet, South Africa’s slow uptake suggests more significant challenges.

Unlike other nations, from a policy standpoint, limited subsidies or incentives are driving the acceleration of the EV market. While the Green Transport Strategy introduced by the Department of Transport provides incentives to produce and sell EVs and set targets for the uptakes of EVs in the government vehicle fleet, little has been done.

In fact, earlier this year, transport minister Fikile Mbalula indicated that various hurdles were stalling a broader shift to EVs. In a parliamentary response, the minister suggested that the biggest challenge in South Africa is cost and that incentives to go green had not been implemented in South Africa as the national tax regime for electric vehicles has effectively led to a barrier in trade.

Compared with the 18% import duty currently added to the price of a car with an internal combustion engine, EVs are taxed by up to 25%. As the minister stated, “[this pushes] the electric vehicle out of the typical affordability market. It also puts the electric car into being classified as luxury, irrespective of the type or model of the car.”