Skip to main content

South Africa wants electric cars

In an effort to promote green technology in South Africa, the government will subsidise the production of electric cars, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said at the launch of the Electronic Vehicle Industry Road Map, which he hopes to submit to the cabinet for approval by September. According to a recent report, South African vehicle manufacturers would qualify for a 35 per cent production subsidy if they locally produced at least 5,000 electronic cars. There are currently three solar-powered chargin
May 7, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
In an effort to promote green technology in South Africa, the government will subsidise the production of electric cars, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said at the launch of the Electronic Vehicle Industry Road Map, which he hopes to submit to the cabinet for approval by September.

According to a recent report, South African vehicle manufacturers would qualify for a 35 per cent production subsidy if they locally produced at least 5,000 electronic cars.

There are currently three solar-powered charging stations in the country. The Electric Vehicle Industry Road Map envisions an additional 47 charging stations by 2015.

“What will make these vehicles sellable in South Africa will be entirely dependent on whether these cars are made in South Africa,” he said.  “These are the very early stages for the cars in manufacturing. There are zero of these cars being produced in the country. That is why we need to get the programmes going.”

Related Content

  • IRF World Congress 2024: moving ahead
    October 22, 2024
    On the last day of the three-day IRF World Congress 2024 in Istanbul, attendees heard what can work best, what can be improved and what the future might hold for those pursuing sustainable goals. David Arminas reports.
  • UK to ‘ban petrol and diesel cars by 2035’
    February 6, 2020
    A  ban on purchasing new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars and vans in the UK will be brought forward from 2040 to 2035.
  • Cost benefit analysis ‘can’t be carried out with a cookbook’
    June 25, 2018
    There is far more to working out the worth of a project than simply filling in a few headings on a spreadsheet. David Crawford surveys some recent thinking from the US and Canada. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) “can’t be carried out with a cookbook”, warns US analyst Professor Robert J Brent. “ You can’t just get out a spreadsheet and fill in the data for all the headings. Each transport CBA should have something that is distinctive, in terms of location (for example, for a rural area), types of user
  • Cars reinvented: huge new opportunities and dangers, says IDTechEx
    December 2, 2016
    The new IDTechEx report, Electric Car Technology and Forecasts 2017-2027 finds that the biggest change in cars for one hundred years is now starting. It is driven by totally new requirements and capabilities. They will cause huge new businesses to appear but some giants currently making cars and their parts will spectacularly go bankrupt. Cities will ban private cars but encourage cars as autonomous taxis and rental vehicles. Already 65 per cent of cars in China are bought by businesses. The Japanese wa