Driving from Johannesburg to Mbombela, you cant help but be overwhelmed by the pollution from power stations and damage done to the countryside from coal mining, not to mention the trucks on the road. I am cruising in my EV thinking I am making a difference, but it suddenly dawned on me …. Unless the energy mix in South Africa changes, it doesn’t matter much. I bought an EV because it is fun to drive and cheap to run. But so much behavior has to change!
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The EV prices need to change. Crazy taxes on EV imports instead of encouraging them. I sadly bought a petrol car this year where I really should have jumped on the EV bandwagon, but the equivalent car was double the price. If it was at a 20-30% premium a lot more people would go for it.
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EV prices do need to come down. Unfortunately I don’t see the government ever being in a position to incentivize them. I bought my car as a demo model from a dealership with less than R10,000 kms on it. They already took the first hit of depreciation of around R1m, making it reasonable. The cost per km to run my car is around 60c compared to an ICE vehicle of R2.40 i.e. one fifth. This is calculated at Eskom rates, not public charging rates. I have done some long trips, but I reckon in 6 months, my fuel saving has been around R14,500. The saving is not enough to compensate for the price premium on some cars, but with BYD introducing cars around the R600k mark, the sums will soon make more sense.
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Sadly, EV’s will only save the planet when the world is able to source materials to make the batteries responsibly. This is a long way off and the mining companies in the supply chain do not share any of your values - sad to observe, but very real.