Africa-Press – South-Africa. Winstone Jordaan, the managing director of GridCars, the largest electric vehicle charging station company in South Africa, said that the company will not wait for electric vehicles (EVs) to arrive en masse in South Africa before widely rolling out charging stations.
This week, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa revealed that there has been impressive growth in the number of EVs being sold in the country.
232 Electric vehicles were sold in South Africa in the first quarter of 2023 – more than double the 112 sold in the same period last year.
But the number of EVs in South Africa is low. Jordaan said there are about 1 500 in the country at the moment.
He said there are around 300 charging stations in the country meaning that there are only 5 EVs per charging station. This is very low by international standards where there are usually 20 to 30 EVs per charging station.
The cover story of the Financial Mail this week looked at EV policy in South Africa and asked whether it is worth investing in charging infrastructure when there are so few cars to use it? Is this a chicken-and-egg scenario?
Jordaan said that GridCars doesn’t think about the problem like that.
“Can you make the chicken or can you make the egg? That’s what you have to decide. Can you build cars or can you lay down the infrastructure?”
He added:
Jordaan said that GridCars is trying to create markets, which requires trust that the country will move toward electric vehicles in the future.
He said that it is difficult to gauge the level of growth that will come in EV sales in the short term, but he is buoyed by movements by Haval, Chery and BYD who may soon be bringing EVs to the country.
He expects the number of EVs in the country to double by the end of the year, but acknowledged that could be wrong. Over a five-year time frame though Jordaan is incredibly confident that there will be a strong uptake of EVs in South Africa.
To provide an indication of the international popularity of EVs, the Tesla Model Y recently became the world best selling car, displacing the Toyota Corolla.
Barriers and opportunities
Jordaan said that the arrival of EVs that sell at around the R500 000 mark will be an important milestone in EV adoption.
“The minute they start putting products in the market, certainly under a million, but optimistically closer to the R500 000 mark, I think that is going to make a huge difference to the rate at which people are going to buy.”
He added:
He said that the perception of EVs is that they are only for the rich, and that it is difficult for many people to consider the lifetime ownership cost of the vehicle rather than simply the purchase price.
He said that there are already some competitive options in the market when you think of the price in this way.
“The vehicles that are already in the market are actually relatively cheap compared to their petrol counterparts. They might be 20% more expensive, but that’s ok. Your petrol price is going to be gone.”
“People really struggle to evaluate these things based on the real lifetime cost of the item.”
He also said that the South African government should publicly endorse EVs as the future, as this will be an important signal to increase their adoption.
A rising tide
Jordaan said that he knows GridCars will lose some of its market share in the electric vehicle charging station industry, but is not afraid of this and is actually helping others who want to invest in the infrastructure.
“We only have market share to lose there’s just no way I can sustain the level of investment needed to retain an 80% market share.”
He added:
He said that GridCars business will become a business that supports other network developers with technical expertise as they roll out their infrastructure.
He said he considers the other network developers as partners rather than competitors.
“The only ones I would consider competitors are the ones that call me a competitor.”
This article was amended to reflect the fact that Haval, Chery and BYD may soon be bringing EVs into the country, not that they will as initially reported.
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