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Should South Africa be pushing forward with electric vehicles?

 

Many commentators have noted that the global race to eliminate fossil-fuel cars can never be replicated in South Africa so long as the government doesn’t fix the power crisis. But even if by some miracle happened in our lifetimes, will the supposed benefits of EVs outweigh their considerable negative effects on the environment? Diederik van ’t Hof, developer of the popular PitStops app, which shows diesel vehicle drivers where to find the cheapest diesel in their area, weighs in.

 

“EVs are touted for many benefits. They’re cheaper to run, are noise-free, and don’t produce harmful fumes. But there are significant downsides to EVs that the mad rush to get rid of internal combustion cars seems to be ignoring,” says van ’t Hof.

 

SA’s electric grid is incapable of charging EVs on a large scale

 

“The shocking state of South Africa’s electric grids are currently in no state to handle the load to charge these vehicles—not even when consumers go completely off the grid, as many people are opting to do in an attempt to sidestep erratic load shedding schedules.”

 

And van ’t Hof has a good idea what he’s talking about. “My house is totally off-grid. I cook with gas, and heat my water with a combination of solar and gas. I use 26 solar panels to charge and run my house. I have a 5kW inverter to charge three batteries that hold 15kw/h for use at night - and I normally wake up with around 50% still in reserve.

 

“My home system hasn’t got any hope of charging a Tesla. I would need to increase my home system by six to eight times - to charge one car? Never mind two cars for a family. And it’s just not possible at night to charge them off a battery system.”

 

 

 

“The issue of the constrained power grid from Eskom also becomes a challenge for the overall uptake, with a key issue of how these vehicles will be recharged should a major power outage occur, or even during the regular load shedding intervals.”

 

Another significant issue facing the adoption of electric cars in South Africa is cost, with Mbalula highlighting that some European countries have started offering financial incentives to go green.

 

By comparison, South Africa’s tax regime for electric vehicles has effectively led to a barrier in trade, he said.

 

“Compared with the around 18% import duty currently added to the price of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine landing in South Africa, an all-electric vehicle is taxed by up to 25%, thus pushing 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."

 

The import duties are currently being imposed by the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (DTIC).

 

Are EVs really environmentally friendly?

 

He points to a little-spoken-of great irony of EVs: the fact that coal is being burned to charge up those plug-in vehicles.

 

The vast majority of lithium-ion batteries used in EVs —about 77% of the world's supply—are manufactured in China, where coal is the primary energy source that’s used to mine metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese used in the batteries, and to heat them to high temperatures.

 

Not only that, but those minerals are toxic and can contaminate water supplies and ecosystems if they leach out of landfills. They have also been shown to cause fires in landfills or battery-recycling facilities due to their inappropriate disposal.

 

Van ’t Hof concludes: “South Africa will never catch up with the ambitious goals of developed countries such as the EU, where fossil fuel cars will be banned by 2035. It’s highly unlikely that Eskom’s bungling attempts to restore reliable electricity needed to power up EV batteries will improve anytime soon. With any luck, by then, the ‘real greenies’ will wake up to the fact that EVs are not going to be the panacea for a less polluted world."